Mr. Ray Doyle:

I will try to remember what members said. Deputy McConalogue raised the issue of live exports and the four moves. That is affecting our trade of cattle to the UK. The UK labelling regulations have stymied that trade. The four moves in 70 days is the basis of the bonus payments that factories initiated and we have discussed them here before. It is a construct of the UK multiples. How that will change after 29 March remains to be seen. Will it change that? Will it move back to no stipulations whatsoever? Will that allow our free trade of live animals to reoccur in the UK? It probably will not because we will have a tariff on the live animal just as we will on the dead animals. The four moves is definitely hindering the live export of cattle to the UK. If one looks at Bord Bia figures for the past ten years, we have been steadily decreasing our live exports to Northern Ireland and the UK on the back of the tightening of the labelling regulations and, as I said in my opening remarks, the tightening by the multiples of the beef processing sector to try to stymie beef prices as well as they can.

The 30 day tuberculosis rule on the export of weanlings has been an EU construct in place since 2000 and even before that. It does not greatly affect the trading or export of many weanlings out of the country. There was a change two years ago in the interpretation of sales of animals directly from a mart but we still facilitate that through negotiations by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with Europe and it does not hamper that trade greatly, but it is still an extra layer to our live exports. The push from the Government on the tuberculosis forum to eradicate it by 2030 would significantly transform our ability to export animals. There are certain requirements, even for carcass beef, for certain Chinese markets that have stipulations on sourcing animals that had tuberculosis and also, drifting into another Deputy's question, export to north African countries. There are stipulations in the veterinary certificates from some north African countries relating to tuberculosis and when animals could have had a breakdown.

Mr. Scallan addressed lairage issues. The lairage issue in France and the export of calves is a by-product of the dairy industry and the type of animals going to the veal units. We have had an extra 300,000 of those animals born in the country in the past five years since quotas ceased. I contend that it is a national issue which we will have to grapple with. Members have been told that we have a problem with the lairage in France, but this lairage is merely disembarkation lairage. It is a shed that the animals need to exit the truck, be fed and watered, rest for 12 hours and be put back on the truck. It is not a control point. We do not need IT systems or a rigorous inspection by departmental staff, whether the French or Irish authorities. I know I am giving a simplistic answer. I believe it is a national interest issue. If the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine could rent a lairage or large areas of sheds, that would suffice to ensure that these animals have disembarked from the trucks. This is an issue for approximately six to eight weeks of the year but not for the rest of the year because the capacity of 4,000, albeit low, is more than adequate to soak up the volume of calves. We have an issue for perhaps six weeks of the year. It is completely understandable from the point of view of the Frenchman running these two lairages. Why would he provide a service to Irish farmers for just six weeks? It is a business decision. Because of that and since it is a national issue for us, we will have to solve it, though it will be solved on French soil.