Mr. Sean Coughlan:

Deputy Connaughton asked about the position between the Department and ourselves vis-à-visthe star ratings and whether there was any mismatch, but I can assure the Deputy that there is no mismatch. Once the animal is genotype four and five-star for the purposes of the scheme, it is eligible until the end of the scheme. In the intervening period, that index may move but that animal remains eligible.

The Deputy asked another question which was similar to that Deputy Fitzmaurice asked about different embryos. As those animals get their own performance, they will establish different values. They will perform differently because they will have received different sets of genes from their mothers and their fathers.

The docility question has come up quite strongly at many of the meetings we have held throughout the country. The current weighting for docility is based on the economic model done by Dr. Paul Crossan at Grange. On the basis of the meetings, the index is under ongoing review. We will be looking at the relative importance of docility from a farm safety point of view and from an on-farm labour point of view.

I would like to respond to Senator O'Neill's query about dairy herds getting four or five stars. It would not be correct to assume that the first cross animals from the dairy herd heifers will be four-star and five-star animals. At the moment, we are finding that approximately 50% of them are and 50% of them are not. If the Senator has managed to-----