Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Everybody except MII seems to think there is a change in the situation in regard to North-South trading of cattle. The ICMSA stated:

[..]from 1 April 2014, Northern Ireland intends to class cattle imported from this State as ‘out of spec’ cattle. This is totally unacceptable, absolutely against the concept of a single market, [with which I concur] and is yet another example of the growing concentration of slaughter capacity both north, south and in the UK.

ICOS stated:

ICOS has raised these barriers to the free trade of live cattle on numerous occasions at National and EU level only to be informed that the EU requirement on the meat labelling regulation was to blame. This assertion is not accurate as the retailers can easily label beef meat to comply with these regulations when it suits them.

ICOS also stated that research carried out in Britain showed no adverse purchasing habits were demonstrated. That contradicts a statement it made about a perceived a huge change in the way southern cattle are being treated in the North of Ireland and that people in the North cannot get their cattle killed there because they have been told they are out of spec.
The Irish Farmers' Journal- I hope sometimes a reputable journal - stated that the last door open was the live trade to Northern Ireland, that this has since been closed under the guise of labelling issues and that allowing processors and retailers access to a closed British market is not in the interests of Irish and British farmers. It seems that everywhere else in Europe, one can trade cattle across a border. There is no problem. One labels it as coming from one state and going to another. I understand it is not as black and white in the Irish situation despite what was said. I will double check that in regard to labelling because of the peculiar nature of this island.
We export live cattle to Italy labelling them Irish born, Italian bred and Italian slaughtered or whatever the mix is. Why is it that Irish-British and Irish-Northern Irish movement of animals seems so problematic and seems to go totally against the spirit of free trade within the European Union? It would seem be contrary to free trade.
I refer to what was said about British prices and the way cattle are sold. This committee was told by different people, including the Minister and one of the farming organisations, that British housewives had a huge preference for British beef, that they were willing to pay a lot more for British-labelled beef and that was the reason one could not sell an Irish animal to a British member of MII, or one of the subsidiaries to which Deputy Colreavy referred, which is paying much more than the equivalent Irish factory for the same animal. One could not sell there because when the British housewife found out it was Irish, she would not pay the price. The evidence would suggest that, like-for-like, the British housewife will pay the price. If there are parts of the animal which are better sold on continental Europe, presumably it is sold where the highest market is but that is neither here nor there. However, it does not explain how it is so hard to get Irish cattle killed in British abattoirs and factories, which is what we are hearing all the time, irrespective of whether they are owned by companies which are controlled ultimately from here or whether they are British organisations. It seems the free market has broken down. Many people believe it is not as simple as that.
I ask about Polish beef processed here, the quantities and the processes by which we ensure it stays as Polish beef and does not get labelled as anything else, as happened in the past with product which came in and was wrongly mislabelled going out. Perhaps Mr. Healy could explain to us the quantities of Polish beef being processed here by MII members. What do they do to ensure it does not get mixed up with beef from any other country and mislabelled somewhere down the line, as happened in the past?