Mr. Seamus Scallan:

No. I am speaking about lairage in France in the context of having a contingency plan in place. The problem is not with lairage in Ireland arises when we get to the far side. The welfare issue in Ireland arises when calves cannot be exported. Are farms capable of handling all of the calves when cows are calving? We need to move calves out as quickly as we can.

The other point about exports, on which people involved in the export industry should have been consulted, is that there was a plan to allow calves to be sold when they were ten days old. They are entering the market system, being bought, possibly by exporters, and held for four days because they cannot be shipped anywhere in Europe before they are 14 days old. If I am right, the rule in Holland is that they may be sold when they are 15 days old. From a welfare perspective, we must bring forward a plan which would show other countries that we were not selling calves at a very young age, that we were keeping them to give them a chance to develop before they were allowed to travel. Legislation should be brought forward to prevent calves from being sold before they are 15 days old. This would be better for everybody and the health of calves, but we are not being consulted or asked for our opinion on many of these rules. That is why we must form an association to speak to the right authorities and say we must find a way around-----