I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 69 together.
The purpose of my recent visit to Egypt, and of the Protocol of Co-operation subsequently signed with the Egyptian Ministry of Supply and Home Trade, was to provide a framework within which Irish exporters, together with CBF, could make detailed commercial arrangements with the Egyptian purchasing authorities. The visit had to be arranged at extremely short notice in order to safeguard the overall position of Irish cattle and beef in Egypt, which was under serious and immediate threat from competing countries.
I am not a party to the contracts which were negotiated by Irish exporters subsequent to my visit. I can only assume that the exporters concerned entered into those contracts on the basis of their own commercial judgement of what the total market environment is likely to be at the time the cattle and beef have to be supplied to Egypt. In this respect the contracts are no different from any others concluded by Irish beef exporters.