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

Live exports have increased significantly this year. Almost 42,000 animals have been exported live this year. Live exports are really important in providing price competition among the factories and processors in Ireland. However, that is what they should be seen to be doing; we should not be seeking to have a huge volume of live exports because we want to try to keep the processing jobs in Ireland. There is a balance to be struck. Live exports are important to keep the factories honest, as farmers would put it, and provide competition to influence prices here, but we should still be trying to find a way to try to obtain the best price possible and slaughter as many animals as we can in Ireland in order to keep the processing and added-value jobs here.

We are working on trying to open new markets. Last year we worked very hard to try to get shipments to Libya for the first time in many years. This involves a ship-certification process. My Department has been working on prioritising this issue. We set very high standards, however, in terms of the quality of ships allowed to transport live animals. This is because we live on an island and realise ships carrying animals to north Africa, for example, must cross the Bay of Biscay in the middle of winter. It is a rough sea at the best of times. Therefore, we need to have the highest ship-certification standards in Europe and we do. The approach is working and there is an outlet which I hope is offering an option to farmers who are not getting the prices they want.

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