Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Beef and Livestock Sector: Discussion

3:45 pm

Photo of Andrew DoyleAndrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society, ICOS, gave a somewhat different perspective to the committee. Its spokesperson stated that while smaller retailers in the United Kingdom were prepared to buy Irish-born cattle, some small abattoir owners had "indicated to ICOS that these same Irish-owned renderers were mysteriously unable to collect offal if they killed quantities of Irish-born cattle but had no capacity problems when they were not killing Irish-born cattle".

They were suggesting that smaller retail outlets did not have a problem with animals once their birth, rearing and slaughtering details were clear. That was the evidence to the committee the last day.