Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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1827. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the State’s assessment of national grain and pulse days-of-cover under normal consumption; progress on establishing rotating strategic reserves; and the storage, quality and refresh arrangements proposed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47204/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Some 80% of animal feed in Ireland is derived from grazed grass/preserved forage and about 4.8 million tonnes of feed in the form of cereals, oilseeds, minerals, vegetable oils, fats, citrus pulp and beet pulp is also consumed as feed for animals.

Approximately 1.7 million tonnes of this is home-grown cereals – barley, wheat and oats, while approximately 6.5 million tonnes is imported. The main commodities imported are maize and maize by-products, soyabean meal and hulls, rapeseed meal, vegetable oils and fats, minerals and vitamins. Of imported feed, approximately 55% is sourced from Third Countries outside the EU, mainly Argentina, USA, Canada and Brazil. Significant quantities of maize and oilseed rape meal are also imported from EU Member States.

Importers of animal feed and feed materials operate on a global scale, acquiring product and meeting the demands of the Irish feed industry from many different sources. The feed industry is readily able to react to changing external challenges such as production disruption, weather issues or geopolitical events to ensure continuity of supply.