Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch go bhfuil sé i láthair ar an lá gnóthach seo chun na ceiste seo a phlé.

I raise an issue in which many farmers are interested, namely, the Libyan and Egyptian live export market for beef. In April 2012 the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, issued a statement on the reopening of the Libyan market, in particular, which was valuable for live cattle exports in the past. In 1995 that market took 81,420 cattle valued at more than ¤70 million but the business came to an abrupt end in 1996 when Libya banned beef imports because of the outbreak of BSE. I understand some headway has been made on reopening those markets and that efforts are being made at diplomatic and technical levels but there have been no major announcements in the interim. This is an important market which would open up many doors and potential streams of income for farmers in the context of the suckler cow welfare scheme cutbacks and also the virtual monopoly where farmers are held to order by the factory system here which is able to keep prices low. Farmers' incomes would be increased dramatically if they had other markets into which they could sell, such as the Egyptian and Libyan markets.

I note that the Irish Farmers Association national livestock chairman, Mr. Henry Burns, said the live cattle market to Libya and other Middle East and north African countries was extremely important for Ireland's ¤2 billion livestock sector. If these markets are open, do we have the transport capability to take the livestock from Ireland to these countries?