Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is no disputing that sheep farmers are under serious economic pressure. The profit per ewe is frightening. The profit per ewe, including the premium, is less than the breakeven point per ewe. Due to the price per kilo of sheep on the world market, Brexit has given the UK far greater scope to source lamb in Australia and New Zealand. In my opinion, the UK is exporting its own fresh lamb to France through Northern Ireland, which is having an undermining effect.

Our prices are at approximately €6.80 per kilo this week. Unfortunately, that is a multiple of the price that lamb is making in Australia today. How can we increase our sector’s profitability in the face of Brexit, the extra tonnage coming into Europe that Mr. Byrne mentioned and the global market price being at such a low ebb, given the greater access that the world market now has to Europe?