Mr. Michael Sheahan:

There is no lack of urgency. I can assure the Senator of that. We are very conscious of what happened in the United States when slaughter plants were shut down by people who thought they were doing the right thing for animal welfare but the unintended consequences were a lot worse, from a welfare point of view. I would agree that it would be preferable to deal with this issue on the island of Ireland but there is no guarantee, when push comes to shove, that somebody is actually going to step forward.