Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Members for the many and varied points they made. Senator Gavan asked a couple of specific questions. I go back to his earlier statement that he is not asking to negotiate in this room. I will not negotiate in this room; I do not have the mandate to do that. I will bring the points raised in this forum back to the Minister. I accept the points made about trust, communication, frustration and concern that have been well articulated by Senators.

A point raised by a number of Members, including Senators Burke, Boylan and Lombard, is the profitability assessment. Whether we are talking about three, five or ten years, this is about a process to determine the value of the company. Whatever year or time period is chosen, in terms of valuing a company, a three-year cycle would normally take away that element of a particular year being good or bad. To my mind, three years would be the norm. We are talking about five years. If the farmers involved want to make the case for ten years and argue that, given the cyclical nature of the business, there is a cycle and pattern every ten years, they can bring forward the evidence to prove that, we will look at it and that will feed into part of the process. I give a commitment in this Chamber that if a strong case can be made for why a ten-year cycle is suitable for this business, and not just in respect of profitability, price of pelts and different countries, and a pattern can be shown, it will be looked at and that evidence will be fed in.

This is probably part of the problem when looking at primary legislation that deals with specifics. We can get into a level of granular detail that is not the ideal way to use primary legislation. Getting into that level of detail is effectively negotiating on the floor of this House. I respect everyone's bona fides and understand why they are making these points. At the back of this, there is that concern about leverage.

Senator Boyhan spoke about the point of the regulations. There is a first draft of the regulations. I understand farmers have been supplied with them. Ultimately, there will be no regulations without the legislation. The legislation must be passed. Any drafts of regulations are just that - drafts - until such time as we have legislation passed so that we can work on that final detail.

Senator Burke asked about the independent assessor. The assessor will be appointed as part of the regulations to work through some of those finer details. Regarding the case the Senator mentioned, Department officials have visited all three farms. There are maps, and mapping systems are used as part of an ongoing process. Our inspectors have been visiting these farms and there is knowledge of them going back years. My understanding is all of the farms have been visited.

Regarding asbestos, again, we are getting into a level of detail. Obviously, when determining costs for demolition or repurposing, the state of those buildings or what they are made from would be a part of that.