Seán Connick (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

The figures for sheepmeat importation are 84% from Great Britain and 6% from Northern Ireland. Most of those imports, including the 6% from Northern Ireland, were carcasses, so the live imports are counted in that figure of 6%. We are aware of the difficulties with regard to the Mercosur talks and to which Deputy Creed alluded, as regards our standards and standards in other countries. The EU-Mercosur talks are currently underway. We are keeping a close eye on those talks because we are aware of the impact of those talks on the beef sector. We have ambitious plans for the future growth of the beef and sheep sectors in Ireland.

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