Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

As everyone in the House agrees, live exports are absolutely essential. If we did not have them the competitive element of the industry would be rather weak. I am anxious that we have as strong a live export trade as possible. Naturally we want a strong beef processing industry also. That balance must be achieved because the beef industry is important for jobs in processing facilities. The increase in live exports so far this year is impressive.

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