Mr. Seamus Scallan:

I will address the live export of calves and the number of calves that can transported by ship each week. Last year, some 166,000 calves were exported from Ireland.

We think that something along the lines of 200,000 calves will be going out this year because of the price of beef, farmers and new entrants coming into the dairy sector, and other issues. We are going to have an awful lot more calves to go out. The issue we are having with our business is that we are limited by the space available in Cherbourg, France, when our calves come off the boat. There are only two licensed premises in France. These are capable of handling 4,000 calves a day, three times a week. These operators say that they can take 12,000 calves a week. What I have been saying to different organisations to which I have been speaking is that this capacity is not 100% right because it leaves out the fact that we have calves coming from the UK, from Northern Ireland. Approximately 1,500 calves a week come down here and go out in the ships. This leaves capacity for 10,500 calves a week. In two weeks time we will be in full swing in respect of the calves. We will be getting 10,500 calves out a week when, at this time of the year and considering what is happening with the numbers and so on, we should be peaking at 18,000 to 20,000 calves in each of our five or six busiest weeks. There is, however, no space in the lairage. Lairage is like a hotel over there in France where the calves are fed. The calves come off the ship and rest for 12 hours before continuing on their journey. The two lairages licensed at present can only take 4,000 calves. If we discount the calves from the North, we are left with capacity for 3,500. We cannot get the calves out because there is no room. We have the customers for the calves, we have the capacity to handle them at our export points and we have the trucks to bring them. The ships are not a problem at the moment. The problem is the lairage.

There has been a lot of discussion about the new Irish Ferries ship, which will sail on alternative days. I met with farming organisations and some people from the Government and spoke to them about the issues we were going to have last October. I was the only one who raised the issues and who said that I saw a problem coming in respect of the export business this year. Everybody said that the ship was coming, that it would go on alternative days, and that we would be all right. I said that was not true, that this ship would not come until May, and that it would be no good to us in May because the markets would be flooded by then. The problem arises when the weather turns bad. This happened on Thursday of last week. There was no sailing for the calves on Thursday so that boat went out on Friday. One ship took no calves out because its operators felt the weather was not correct for it to sail. This ship is not as big as the one Stena operates out of Rosslare. The boat left Rosslare with calves packed to the gunwhales and we went to the lairage. There was no more room. We had another two trucks of calves which we could not send. It was okay that day. The capacity was there. We had 4,000 calves and they all went out. We are going to have serious welfare issues in respect of the calves when we get two bad days together. These farms cannot handle holding the calves over. We cannot buy the calves off the farmers if we cannot export them because we have no room at the far side.

The whole problem with this issue is that the livelihood of every farmer depends on the two men who own the two lairages that look after all our business is France. We need a back-up and a contingency plan for bad weather so that, when the weather is going to be bad, we can use the alternative lairage which we were able to use for the last number of years, which is four hours further than Cherbourg. We cannot use that lairage anymore because of the legislation which was introduced. There is capacity for an extra 4,000 calves per sailing which we cannot use. We are snookered every way.

The price of calves is going to collapse in Ireland. With the price of beef there is going to be an awful lot of extra calves coming on the market this year. Farmers are not interested in buying them because we are losing €200 or €300 per carcass. People are not going to buy the calves. The dairy farmers who are keeping them are not going to keep the extra calves because there is no money in it. Everything is so costly to keep. What are we going to do with the calves? We need to find a plan. In coming here today I am hoping that the committee will be able to look into the matter and see about an alternative plan for the weather and a plan in respect of the two people who are - I will not say "controlling" because that would not be a nice thing to say - doing their business in France and who have their lairages there.