Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I fully support the export of live cattle but we need a balance between the cattle for slaughter here and the competition from live exports. The number of cattle exported to Britain up to 4 October last represents an increase of 613% over the comparable period in 2008, and the number exported to Northern Ireland represents an increase of 286% a year on.

I am aware of the difficulties and was working on this prior to any media commentary. I met the farming groups and individual farmers.

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