I also respectfully ask the Government to help the pig industry through the prolonged crisis it is experiencing at present. I thank the Minister for meeting many of the pig farmers yesterday. There are 8,000 jobs in the pig industry. They are currently losing between €40 and €50 per pig. Feed has gone up from €270 a tonne to €430 a tonne, and they have been told it is going up a further €70 a tonne next week. There are pig farmers all over Kerry, at Killorglin, Causeway, McAuliffe’s and Knocknagoshel. We have the Roughty Valley pig operation on our own road, the Bog Road in Kilgarvan, which was set up in 1972. It has been run successfully by Christy Hussey and has been environmentally friendly for many years. This is on our own road, where my own father and I were born and reared. It would hurt us deeply.

Thank you Deputy. The Deputy is out of time.

I will say one thing. If the Government cannot or will not help them, please tell them right away and do not keep them hanging on because they are losing massive sums of money daily.

I have been talking to the Minister about this. I want to make it very clear to the Deputy that we fully appreciate the very significant difficulties the pig industry is facing right now. These are normally enterprises that are viable and productive, they have done well and they create about 8,000 jobs in the economy. We want to do everything we possibly can to be of assistance during what is now a perfect storm for the industry due to a number of market issues, such as African swine flu, plus the war and the inflation of input costs. We acknowledge all of that. The Minister had an initial scheme which was funded up to €7 million and which allowed a maximum payment of €20,000. The Minister met with the groups yesterday to see what more we can do to try to bring an intermediate resolution of this crisis, so we can get through this period and remain intact when times get better.

I thank the Taoiseach and the Minister.