Ms Lorna Meaney:

The Commission has, in part, taken our geographical position into consideration. With regard to unweaned calves, the legislation states that the part of the journey by sea can be discounted but the animals must be fed on the journey. The challenge for us will be to feed them on the ferry during the journey. They must be fed every nine hours.

You are allowed to discount from the journey time the 18-odd hours that it takes to transport an animal between Rosslare and Cherbourg. That gives you nine, one and nine plus 18 for unweaned calves and ten, one and ten plus 18, 24-hour rest, and ten, one and ten again for weaned animals. They recognise that we have a particular challenge from the point of view of our geographical location.

I will say again that these proposals are very much a draft. We are reaching out to other member states to discuss this with them, as was mentioned. Some member states will have issues in common. Others will have different things that will concern them, for instance, temperatures in certain very hot countries. We would have some things in common and other things that we would not but we are reaching out to other member states to discuss it with them and get their viewpoints. This is in anticipation of when it is going to be discussed in the working party at the Council in Brussels.

At the moment, the dog and cat legislation is going through. That is what is being discussed. It is unlikely that we will have any progress on this until the very end of the term of the Belgian Presidency or, more likely, some time during the Hungarian Presidency next autumn. It will not be discussed before then.