Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 451: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the reason his officials cannot provide export permits to traders (details supplied) for Saturday sales at a mart in County Roscommon but can provide such facilities at other marts; if he will review this policy to facilitate the issuing of such permits on a Saturday; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24729/09]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The service provided by my Department for the export of cattle involves a considerable amount of checking on the transport vehicle(s), documentation, identification of the cattle, fitness for transport, and health status, as well as preparing the health certificate to accompany the consignment and sending a notification of the details of the export to the Member State of destination via the TRACES system. However in order to make best use of resources, requests to my Department for export services have to be prioritised in line with limitations on staff resources and budgets. On occasions it is not possible to provide all the requested services, especially at weekends or outside of normal working hours. My Department continues to work with exporters and export points to facilitate the important export trade to the greatest extent possible.