Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of the Minister not being here today, we had agreed to change the day for parliamentary questions. He must have known he was going to have this meeting. We have all been aware, for the past two weeks, that the US Secretary of Agriculture was coming to Ireland because we received an invitation to a reception this evening. Why, therefore, did the Minister not come into the Dáil and say that today did not suit and swap times with another Minister? We would have co-operated in that regard. No disrespect to the Minister of State, but in the middle of a crisis, the senior Minister should be here.

Since last autumn, I have been highlighting the issue of the beef crisis. Will the Minister of State answer the questions I am about to ask and it would be helpful if he can answer them in the order I ask them? My first question concerns the live trade to Britain. What has been done to remove the barriers to this trade and why is it possible to export cattle from Larne to Scotland, but the same companies will not take cattle from Dublin to Holyhead? Why is it possible to export from one part of the island but not the other? Second, the issue of labelling has become a significant issue in the past year. It is driving down prices, particularly by reducing the demand for cattle from Northern Ireland. Third, I welcome what the Minister of State said about legislation for producer organisations, but will he give me some indication of the timescale for this? Is this going to be a constant promise, once again, of something that might happen when it happens and so on? When are we going to get this legislation? Can the Minister of State give me a date for it?

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