Professor Gerry Boyle:

We have carried out two fodder surveys. Teagasc has co-ordinated that. We are members of and co-ordinate the interagency fodder committee established by the Minister to deal with and respond to the fodder situation. We did a survey around June that showed a 30% fodder deficit. I think that is where the Deputy's figure comes from. We carried out a new survey more recently, and there was significant improvement between the first and the second surveys. The first one showed an average deficit of about 30%, though of course there is a range of results. The second survey showed an average deficit of about 12%.