Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will raise one issue with regard to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, who is on a very successful trade mission to Saudi Arabia. He met with the Saudi food authorities in Riyadh on Wednesday, which I believe was a very successful endeavour. He got agreement in principle regarding the lifting of current restrictions whereby Irish beef exports to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia must come from cattle that have been slaughtered aged under 30 months. That has now been lifted. That has been welcomed this morning by meat traders and the cattle industry. That is very important.

The Minister has also initiated and set up a series of talks, which he plans to conduct in the next few weeks, with regard to sheepmeat access and poultry meat for the future. That is really productive. It is, of course, the first time in recent times with Covid-19 that we had a Minister go out with a trade delegation and agricultural attachés from his Department to negotiate and seek new markets for Irish agriculture. One of the biggest things I learned from a briefing I received is that we export more than €100 million in food to Saudi Arabia, which is enormous, and the biggest demand, of course, is for dairy products. That is very important. At a time when we are having a major debate about culling the national herd, we have international markets looking for dairy products and milk formulas for a range of things, not necessarily all for human consumption. That is very important. Well done to the Minister. As we all know, Irish beef is high-quality, sustainable and safe. That is why the Saudi market wants it and that is why the Minister went out to develop these links. Fair play to him. I congratulate him and his team in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on this very important initiative.