Ms Tara McCarthy:

We have been doing a lot of work on grass-fed animals. When one discusses grass-fed animals with consumers and those involved in trade, the conversation turns to what else would the animal eat if was not eating grass. Against that backdrop, we wanted to understand what their other concerns were about grass-fed animals, the use of GM products and everything that might be part of the food chain. We commissioned this work last year which was part of a review that we were undertaking. It was to look at the matter from the perspective of both dairy and beef producers. We wanted to understand whether it was a consumer or a trade issue. The Senator's comment on Germany not wanting to accept any non-GM product was not exactly accurate. Lidl has launched a private label product in Germany. It has called its private label range, with a very limited range of products, non-GM, on which it is not paying any premium to any supplier. It is counted as a discount product which has created some concern for the Irish suppliers involved. That would have been another influence in commissioning the work to understand what was happening in Germany. Germany is not the only market we are researching. We are looking at quite a number of other markets, including the United States and markets to the east, to understand the full global impact.