Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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We have a vótáil, gentlemen, so I am going to have to suspend the meeting. We will come back because I know there are a few more who want to put questions to the witnesses. I apologise. We will probably be 20 minutes to half an hour. That is democracy.

There is one point I would like our witnesses to address when we come back. We talk about certainty, but at the moment, dairy farmers do not know what their stocking level is as regards nitrates. There is banding and the level of production going with that, and now there is this allowance for the feeding of a low protein ration. You are trying to calculate where you are at, we are virtually halfway through the year and people are going to have to make decisions. I wonder whether the co-ops can help to do the calculations. I raised in the Dáil this week the need for the Department to come out with a statement at the end of each month so people know exactly what their stocking rate is. The complication in that is that the Department will not know if a person is feeding a low-protein ration and what impact that is going to have. Three or 4 kg of an allowance per cow will have a huge impact on a person's stocking rate. There is a role for the co-ops in this to get information to farmers because, at the moment, they do not know. Unfortunately, we are going to be in a quota situation at the end of the year where, if people are heading into a different band, they will have to take corrective action to keep under the 220. This is something we might address when we come back - the complications for farmers in knowing exactly where they are with their stocking rate.