Mr. Gabriel Gilmartin:

With regard to the receiver, if there were problems for a number of months, an examiner should have been put in place rather than sending shockwaves through the entire farming community and have mart managers panicking. It is laid out clearly in the law, as has been emphasised several times, that the bank hires a receiver and the receiver gets paid first. Naturally, the bank will get paid, so the marts and the farmers are at the bottom rung of the ladder. That is a disaster. I do not believe it can be changed because that is the law.

With regard to exports, particularly into the UK, it is amazing that no boat leaves the Republic of Ireland to transport livestock to the UK. We have constantly and intensively lobbied various ferry companies here to provide a ferry service. They are a little bit worried about animal rights issues in the UK which is a problem but one never knows unless one tries. Exports and the opening of gateways should be strongly pushed by the Ministry. It is a scandal that to transport calves or weanlings from Cahirciveen in Kerry to the south of England, one must first travel all the way to Larne in Belfast.

The feed lots in England want our cattle. There is a problem with labelling issues and the supermarkets, as some people on this side of the room referred to earlier. Those issues can be overcome because the feed lots in the UK want Irish livestock due to the scarcity of animals in the UK. We must address those issues. We have talked to the farming unions and supermarkets in the UK about the matter. There may be a way around the matter but it will take a little more work. To help us on our way we need a big push by the Irish Government.

With regard to the closure of TLT International, we must first establish a task force to ensure that it never happens again and to protect the weanling trade. Between 80,000 and 90,000 farmers produce weanling calves and every one of them will be affected by the closure. We also need competition in the marketplace. All one must do is look at what happened with Irish beef in the UK. One individual involved in the meat industry here, controls the markets in the UK, mainland Europe and South America. We do not want to see all of the markets go the same way. In order for farming to survive, particularly weanling exports, we must export from Ireland. We must get people who are involved in the industry together, learn what their problems are and find a solution.