Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With respect, I did not question the welfare standards. I only said they will raise extra complications with the amount of lorry space on the ships. That will create difficulties. As I have said, it will be a concentrated calving period this spring. We will have a month to avail of this opportunity to get calves to the Continent and we cannot have any blockages preventing the maximum number of calves getting there. The welfare of calves has to be paramount and if the buyers on the Continent are not happy with the condition of our calves, we would not see the increase in the percentages of exports we have seen. Thankfully, calves are arriving on the Continent in good nick as they should be. If they were not we would quickly see the numbers of calves being exported drop.

The provision of extra lairage is an essential safety valve that has to be availed of. We see commentary in the media about the value of these calves coming out of the dairy herd. If we do not have a proper live export there will be serious issues. Welfare standards have to be as high as possible, and we accept that, but we want to ensure a lack of lairage space in Cherbourg does not cause any backlog in the system this spring.

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