Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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In response to a Topical Issue raised by Deputy Troy, the Minister said he understood the company was being placed in receivership by AIB and HSBC banks. That is not correct. I understand it has been placed in receivership by HSBC. It is important to correct that fact because on this issue all the facts need to be correct if people are to have confidence in what is going on.

The farming organisations have made it clear that TLT going into receivership will cause a problem for farmers and the prices they will get. Last night I met several farmers who are affected by this. They claim it is already affecting them by up to €300 per animal. The loss of the main live exporter will cause a problem. It has been suggested that others will take up the slack, but who will take up the slack? One of the people who is supposed to take up the slack owns a meat factory here and the others just export to Hungary and Germany. One of the others who could potentially take up the slack does not have access to the same markets this company had. Someone is just not going to rush in here and solve this problem. We need to consider the possibility that there might be a future for TLT or something similar. It is quite obvious that this will leave a big hole in the market. Regardless of the product, if fewer people are vying to buy it, the price will obviously be affected.

When did representatives of the IFA and TLT last meet? Has the IFA made a serious effort to sort this out? One of the main purposes of this meeting is to ensure this does not happen again. One way to ensure this does not go wrong again is by opening up access to the UK markets. There seems to be an animal welfare problem in transporting animals on a ferry to Britain while there seems not to be a problem bringing them on a ferry all the way to Cherbourg. If there are concerns about a short journey, why are there not concerns about a very long journey? Last night I spent about three hours with the owners of TLT. As far as they are concerned, if the markets to Britain were opened up, the company's shipping costs for last year would have been reduced from €1.5 million to about €900,000. That €600,000 would have made a massive difference to it. What are the farming organisations doing to open this potentially phenomenal market for the live trade? When did the IFA have its last contact with TLT?

May I ask a supplementary question on that?