Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Many of the questions have been dealt with but I am interested in the capacity issue. If 80,000 animals were to be shipped per month for 12 months, it would be a fourfold increase on the present figure. I believe 246,000 were exported last year, which shows there is already huge capacity. What is the number of calves being exported? I assume a lot go to feedlots. At what stage do they go to the feedlots? The majority of the destinations appear to be in Europe, to the same countries to which we export beef. What is the level of live exports relative to the finished beef product that we export to those countries?

Most farmers would prefer the animals to be bought by factories here and slaughtered in Ireland and the work to be here rather than elsewhere. The existence of the live export trade is, to some extent, a solution to a problem that should not exist. We should have competition and the necessary capacity to process as much as possible here. What are Ms Barry Walsh's comments on that? There will always be a need for some level of live export, but I was quite taken aback by the scale of the capacity, at 80,000 per month. It would be a huge number of animals if it were to be utilised.