Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They do not take them because of previous experiences of protests against live cattle exports on roll on-roll off ferries. A technical labelling issue also arises in respect of country of origin labelling of Irish originating and UK finished beef, which I will address in more detail in the context of Deputy Naughten's question on this topic. Factories do not want live cattle coming from Ireland. They want Irish produced and processed beef. That is a huge and successful market for us but it give rise to issues with the labelling of British beef which has been produced in Ireland but finished in the UK. I respectfully suggest that the Deputy should study the details of that issue because it is a genuine problem and will not be easy to overcome from an Irish domestic policy perspective.

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