Mr. Martin Blake:

Members may be aware of it, but it has been going on for some time. It has been driven by the need to ensure that dairy male calves in particular are cared for and have a utility once they are born. One of the great successes that arose out of this is the increased use of sexed semen. We reduced the birth rate of dairy male calves by 100,000 in the past two years or so, from 380,000 to 270,000. That has been a significant change in the type of calf being born on the farm. That feeds into the ongoing dairy beef integration initiatives. We met last week with a stakeholder group to update it on the development in the Netherlands. As Mr. Gleeson said, in the context of the beginning of 2026, the industry standards are suggesting the Netherlands will be reducing the intake of imported calves, not specifically from Ireland but imported calves generally.

Obviously, Ireland is one of the bigger exporters to the Netherlands. It is part of their quality assurance scheme in the context of wanting to reduce the carbon footprint of the calf they are bringing in, but also reflecting pressures within the Netherlands in relation to nitrates and ensuring the calves born in the Netherlands are bred and grown in the Netherlands. We also see some initiatives whereby Dutch farmers are moving to eastern Europe to set up farms there as well. That would reduce the imports from eastern Europe into the Netherlands.

It is a significant issue in relation to that particular type of calf being exported to the Netherlands over the next 12 to 18 months. Bord Bia is part of this group as well and is looking at developing other markets for calves. The sense across Europe generally is whatever the outcome of the negotiations on the transport rules, it will be pushing towards an older calf being moved. Some people would push that unweaned calves should not move at all but it will be an older calf that will be moved.

We see some developments in markets in Spain, particularly in respect of older calves going to Italy. We see some developments in calves moving further afield in Europe. The diversification of markets for calves is happening but ultimately, the biggest challenge we have is that no matter what, we have to come up with a way to feed the calves on the ferry. That is the challenge out there now and to my mind, it is an engineering challenge.