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Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: Deputy Ó Cuív's question pertained to TLT in particular. While TLT has been a significant player in the export of live cattle to the Continent, accounting for 20% of total exports, the export of live cattle from Ireland to Italy had declined significantly in recent years prior to TLT going into receivership. The decrease in live exports was mainly due to higher cattle prices in...

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: On the Deputy's first question, part of the problem in Italy is the level of demand and the price purchasers are willing to pay compared with the prices prevailing in the domestic market in Ireland. In terms of the UK, it is important that people examine the reasons behind the problems in live cattle exports to the UK. Roll on-roll off ferry services do not want to take live cattle.

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: 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...

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: That is a valid question and is an issue we are working on currently. I have spoken to my Northern Ireland counterpart, the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Michelle O'Neill, who is also anxious to progress this issue. A technical discussion has commenced at a very senior level in both Departments to determine how we can facilitate this. However, it is not as simple as one...

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: Having said that, I am supportive of-----

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: I am supportive of trying to facilitate a situation whereby food producers in Northern Ireland, who are Irish people and are producing Irish produce, can label it as Irish. However, protocols must be in place to allow my Department and its inspection teams to be part of the rigours of the necessary inspection process in Northern Ireland, with all of the checks and balances that we insist...

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: The Deputy makes a fair point but both pork and poultry products on sale in Ireland and across the EU will have a country of origin label requirement in future, in the same way as beef products do at the moment, which will be a very welcome development when it happens. The ground is moving on this issue. On the issue of Irish-grown, British-finished beef and the labelling system around...

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: This is about supplying what the market wants. It is not about what we want. We must provide product that the market will pay for. In Italy there has been a demand for a certain age and quality of animal because that is what Italians want. The beef industry in Italy had a shortage of such animals. In the United Kingdom, the market wants something different. Regardless of what we want or...

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: I do not understand what the Deputy means when he says my Department is washing its hands of it.

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: I agree.

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: I want cattle to be slaughtered and processed in Ireland. There are jobs in these value-adding activities. The same thing applies in the case of seafood. It is important for farmers who do not feel the factories are giving them value for money for their cattle to have an alternative outlet - to keep the factories honest, as many people describe it. That is why we welcomed the opening of...

Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: The Department has not been asked by the receiver-----

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: One of the challenges faced by those involved with the mapping system is that they have to rely on an image from space. The move from getting images from high-flying aircraft to getting images from satellites has allowed us to be much more precise. The imagery now available to us allows us to see the animals in the fields. I understand some challenges are encountered when photographs are...

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: The measurement of land area within the land parcel identification system respects all national surveying conventions with regard to slopes or hill land. The area quoted on Ordnance Survey Ireland maps, on which much of the land parcel identification system database is built, is based on the principle of measuring the horizontal or two-dimensional area. In cases of sloped land, this is the...

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: We are changing our software systems all the time. We have practically designed a new system.

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: It is working, by the way.

Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: That may be so, but it is because we are in the middle of a correction period. Other countries in the EU that are far bigger than Ireland are unable to do what we are doing. Since the middle of the summer, we have reassessed practically every one of the hundreds of thousands of land parcels in this country. I regard the judgment that has been made of the amount of land that is potentially...

Other Questions: Departmental Publications (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: While this is a valid question, I think it is a strange one. The Department issues newsletters on a reasonably regular basis to update farmers who want to get that information. They are sent out in as cost-effective a way as possible. This is essentially an online service. Nobody in my Department is being paid anything extra for this and we are not bringing in any extra staff for it....

Other Questions: Departmental Publications (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: I have no idea. I trust my Department to put these newsletters together. It is my job to be the political face of Irish agriculture and I have no intention of shying away from that. It is my job to encourage, inspire and lead people in an ambitious new direction in terms of building an industry. That is working and it is working on the back of a plan that, to be fair, the previous...

Other Questions: Departmental Publications (12 Dec 2013)

Simon Coveney: I trust the corporate affairs division in my Department to put together a newsletter that is non-party political but unapologetically advocates for our sector and informs people of what we are doing. I am involved in practically everything the Department does that is new and is newsworthy. Of course I am because I am the head of the Department. I do not see why I should shy away from that...

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