Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

I will, of course, answer the question; I always answer questions. In regard to boats for live exports, in relatively recent times a number of boats have been approved for live exports and a number of others are under examination. We have answered parliamentary questions on this a number of times recently. If harmonised standards were introduced in the way the Deputy has described, we would certainly engage in that debate. We have a particular exposure and a unique one. This is very relevant here. At Council after Council there is an attempt to raise the issue of an eight-hour limit on the transport of animals by a group of member states, including some very significant and influential member states. Ireland is uniquely exposed on that. One of the main defences we raise is the standards of our boats and the standards of veterinary supervision of those boats. That is a very important issue to us. We regularly say that we apply standards above the EU minimum. It is a strong defensive point that we made on this issue. This particular issue is one that annoys me quite a bit, because some of these countries actually implement systems of confinement-based beef production.

Frankly, it is a bit rich that they do this but they do it regularly. It is an issue where we are uniquely exposed because of our location and the size of our beef sector. We need to be defensive of it. That is all I would say to the Deputy but we would, of course, engage with it.

The other implication is only-----