This year in particular was an extraordinarily bad one for farmers. Senator Noel Coonan rightly points out that farmers' incomes next year will be significantly depleted, as opposed to the paltry increases they had in 2000 and 2001. There is an onus on this Government to ensure that farming is safeguarded and that as many young people as possible can be encouraged to undertake careers in farming. The incentives available in many other areas of professional occupation increasingly lure young people from the land, and that is a very sad development in Irish society. At one time, in any rural area the vast majority of people depended in some way or other on an agriculture-based income. A large part of the income of the dwindling number of farmers left on the land is from direct payments, not from farming activity itself.