Paraic Brady (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to address an issue that has come to my attention regarding the Stena Line route being suspended from Rosslare to Cherbourg. As everybody knows, cattle prices in Ireland are now at a level they should have been at for the past ten years and we have seen live exports rise about 70%. We are now in the middle of calving season, where we depend on our exports to cater for the weanling trade as well as the calf trade into Spain and France.

Irish Ferries now only travels on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The Stena Line route, as I say, has been suspended. Irish Ferries has put on an extra date, which is on a Saturday. It is catering for ten loads on a Tuesday, 18 livestock lorries on a Thursday, nine on a Friday, and eight maximum on a Saturday. There is a shortfall of about ten loads in a week because we are in the middle of peak season. If this continues in the middle of the season we are in, we are going to end up with a serious welfare issue in this country, with exporters holding weanlings for an extra month in their lairage. This is going to affect marts, with farmers not getting paid for their stock because exporters depend on this trade to get their livestock out to feedlots abroad to get paid for them. I am asking for an intervention by the Minister for agriculture, along with the ferries, to see if something can be done to alleviate this problem. There is huge concern as we have 2,500 cattle in lairage throughout Ireland that need to be exported out of the country.