Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank the Green Party for putting animal welfare on the agenda. At the outset, I want to say I am the son of a cattle dealer and I have brothers who are involved in trading cattle. I know the potential and the importance of exporting cattle, as the Minister of State does, with her responsibility in this area. Let us be clear about the difference in the contribution from the leader in this House of the Green Party, which she has read into the record. I will tease out some of it, although I cannot tease out all. That is not reflected in the motion, which makes a simple nine calls on the Government. The first call is to legislate for a minimum requirement. Let us be clear if we are sending a message out to the Green Party animal welfare group. I know many of them, and they are colleagues of mine and friends of mine. We may have different opinions but not too many. Let us be clear that today's motion put down by the Green Party states that we should legislate for a minimum requirement in all shipments carrying live animal exports to third countries. It is not calling on this House or the Government to ban live exports of cattle outside the European Union. That is a very important point. I recognise that those in the Green Party are pragmatists and, as Senator Pauline O'Reilly said, they have to work within the confines of coalition Government. That is a very important point. The Senator is not calling today, in this motion, which she had the option to do, for the banning of live exports outside the European Union.

We need to look at other issues. Of course, I would have concerns about live exports of cattle anywhere - within the Union or outside the Union - but we have to be pragmatic. We live in an economy with jobs. One Member spoke of calves bawling. I am long enough around to have heard of mothers bawling when their sons and daughters had to emigrate for jobs. I just want to set the context. There were many heartbreaks on the harbour walls of our nation, which is important in the context of this debate.

I am in favour of veterinary technicians. I am not sure if we can afford highly-paid professional vets but qualified veterinary technicians are an option, and that is important.

We need to look at the lairage scheme, in particular in Wexford. We need to see how cattle are coming in and out of the various ports within the European Union and where they are resting up. We need to talk about their age as they are not all young. There are many cattle that go outside the European Union to be finished and it is not correct to say they are all going to be slaughtered, which is simply not being done. That is also an important point.

It is only fair that we acknowledge that the programme for Government committed to double funding being allocated to animal welfare organisations over two years, based on the 2020 budget allocation of approximately €2.4 million. Savings in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine were looked at and, eventually, that went up to €3.2 million, and 110 organisations received funding in 2020. I have the list with me here and, indeed, I circulated it across the country at the time and I checked with the committee yesterday to see that it is there. I firmly believe it would not have happened as much were the Green Party not there, and it is important to acknowledge that and to be fair to the Minister of State.

I want to single out the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, who has done an excellent job. He is the one who engages with us on the committee. He has come to the committee. He is a strong advocate, like the Minister of State. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has come to the fore in terms of working on animal welfare. It is he who comes to the committee and answers most of the questions on it, and his Ministers of State are clearly committed to it.