Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am surprised the Minister is promoting the export of live cattle. When we export live cattle there is very little in it for the Exchequer, and we are certainly not creating any jobs. The Minister will probably agree that the cattle we are selling to Libya and Egypt are generally of a poor grade and are usually surplus from the dairy farmers who are looking to supplement their herd and are ending up with Friesian bulls that nobody here wants. It might make far more sense for the Department to educate the dairy farmer, who should be running a continental bull with his herd and using artificial insemination to make sure he is getting the Friesian cow replacements he wants. Letting a Friesian bull run with all his herd to get his Friesian heifers does not make sense if he is left with, for want of a better word, scrap that only the Egyptians and Libyans will take. If we use continental bulls, the calves will be of far better quality.

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