Mr. Ray Doyle:

I could give an answer too, but I do not think I will chance it. That issue most definitely needs urgent attention from Bord Bia. As I said, it is conflicted from an organisational point of view and looking over our shoulders, as we are, at NGOs, vegans and vegetarians and how best to navigate that area. Live exports are a hot potato for many people to deal with at the moment. We are trying to navigate this issue in our discussion here today. Cherbourg is just one small aspect of a greater issue. It speaks to the need to remove as many animals as we can off of our island. We are unique in this situation. As I stated in my opening address, 90% of our cattle - it is less so in the case of sheep - have to find a home somewhere else. They have to be consumed somewhere other than our island. Every other European country more or less consumes what it produces. We are always going to be caught, from a political perspective, by rules and regulations on transport.

I will wrap up by saying this issue on transport is one of non-conformance throughout the entire EU. Some member states have, however, made unilateral decisions to even trump those present regulations. Transporters with three decks of calves, or two decks if the animals are over six months old, are not allowed to transit through the Netherlands, for example. It goes beyond EU legislation on animal welfare and that has been done for that country's own benefit. This a natural progression and we are going to have to deal with these increased restrictions on animal welfare. We have no problem complying with what is there. This one particular issue in Cherbourg, however, is a symptom of our expansion, our seasonality, and that it is not economic for this lairage to be run in the fashion we would like it to be. I also refer to increased monitoring of EU regulations. If we went back two or three years, there was no problem with our transporters going directly to the Netherlands. That was probably wrong because legislation was being breached.