Mr. John Bryan:

At different times, I would be concerned that factories work in cohesion to maintain the price. It is our job, however, to do everything we can to raise the price. That is why we work hard on live exports and to encourage the maximum amount of cattle to go through the marts. That is why we are trying to work with the NFU to get cattle into the UK. Cattle do go from Larne easily but there is EU legislation on transfers between countries. When one crosses the Border it is, unfortunately, deemed as a different country. When one crosses from Larne in Northern Ireland to the UK, it is not regarded as a different country. The legislation that applies to international exports does not apply from Larne to Scotland or England. However, we have worked hard to reduce the cost of transferring livestock between countries. A substantial amount of cattle go North but it is deemed as moving to another jurisdiction, so we have to get the regulations reduced to a minimum when that happens. Over the last two years, an average of 70,000 cattle per annum have gone north of the Border, varying from weanlings, to store cattle and finished cattle.

As regards shipping policy, a boat must be certified by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to carry livestock. It is an expensive process. I explained how we worked to get boats certified for north Africa, including Libya and other areas. If one wants to haul cattle from Holyhead to Dublin or vice versa, one must be certified by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which has very high standards. I am not giving out about that. Irish standards for animal transportation are the highest in the world. That is good because it secures our live export trade and means that cattle will travel in comfort and safety, which is important.

The Deputy asked a frivolous question about whether anyone had threatened us. If he knows anything about the IFA, he would know that threatening us is a waste of time.