Mr. Willie Masterson:

On the question of whether producers will be able to supply enough malting barley to the new distilleries coming on stream, I can say there will be no problem whatsoever. Malting barley grows well on light soils, including the Clonroche series soils which spread all the way from Wexford as far as Athy. Diageo introduced new rules this year which require that barley for distilling must be grown in soil that is under 9.5% protein and between 9.5% and 11% for malting. The difficulty is that one might do the very same things this year that one did last year, but there is no guarantee the soil will be within that protein range. It is essentially in the hands of the gods. Having said that, some 110,000 tonnes are being produced at the moment for Boortmalt, with the latter estimating, given all the extras that are coming on stream, that it will not need any more than an additional 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes to cover the distilleries. The 200,000 tonnes that were referred to earlier include Midleton and places like that.