Mr. Niall Earls:

On the first part of the Deputy's question regarding the number of sheds in the country - and "ballpark" is the right word to use in this respect - we estimate that there are more than 100,000, with only 20% of them having rubber flooring currently. That brings us back to a previous question the Deputy asked, which has not been addressed, regarding an article by a Dutch journalist for a particular publication. The journalist, Wakker Dier, came to Ireland to do what could be called an undercover exposé on beef production here. He visited a number of sheds and found that our beef production is predominantly based on cold slippy concrete slats, as he described them, with little room for each animal, perhaps only up to 2.5 sq. m. That was quite an embarrassing article for Bord Bia, which was the target of this article due to the green, grass-fed image that we portray around the world. He decided that image needed to be exposed for what it was. For 60% of the year our cattle are outside grazing on grass but, in reality, for 40% of the year they are housed indoor because it is not feasible or practical to have cattle out all year round. Therefore, for 40% of the year animals are kept indoors. Only 20% of the floors they are on have soft rubber flooring. There is a great number of cattle on those slats, as that journalist mentioned. The article was embarrassing for Bord Bia. For food to get a stamp of quality, surely an animal having been in comfortable circumstances would be one of the main requirements.