Mr. Seamus Scallan:

There was a good market in Turkey for the bigger livestock, such as weanlings of 400 kg or 500 kg, but that business has collapsed because of the currency and the problems there.

We need to return to the problem with England. We had a good market in England years ago but, as time passed, we were unable to send Irish cattle to England and have them killed in the slaughterhouses there and vice versa. I cannot understand this because we can send Irish calves to Spain, which takes them from maybe eight or ten different countries, and Holland and it does not make any difference where the cattle come from, yet we cannot have our cattle killed in England. Traditionally, we could send the cattle to England by boat or ferry but that all stopped in recent years. I cannot understand the reason for that. Our cattle cannot cross the Border into Northern Ireland to be killed and vice versa. However, when the factories in the North are short of cattle they will come South and buy the cattle and bring them up to the North. I cannot understand why this trade has stopped. It hampers this business because in England there is a big market for the store cattle, the bulls and heifers. Whether the market is being controlled, or who is controlling it, that is there to be seen.