Mr. Daniel Sinnott:

On the database, the information we currently have is drawn from a series of surveys carried out by the national inventory for architectural heritage and by local authorities. Some of those surveys are quite recent, so the data is reasonably up to date. However, some of them are up to 20 years old, so we know there have been changes since then. There might be some additional thatch buildings in some cases and in many other cases there would have been losses in thatch which is why we give an approximate figure of 2,000. We are trying to draw a line between a few different information points over time. To address that uncertainty, we are carrying out the national thatch census, which the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, referred to, so there are surveyors in the field at the moment and we will begin to get reports on certain areas before Christmas. We expect to be able to complete that census by February next year. At that point, we will have more reliable figures for the exact number of thatched buildings per local authority.