Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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1635. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of cattle and in particular the number of cows that have been imported from Scotland for direct slaughter in meat processing plants here from 1 January 2017 to date in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27670/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Figures extracted from my Department's Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) database give the following details for live imports of cattle from Scotland for slaughter thus far in 2017*;

The Deputy should note that in this context, there is no further breakdown available in relation to whether those females over 24 months are heifers or cows. In this period, Irish meat factories have slaughtered approximately 700,000 head of cattle. The overwhelming majority of cattle slaughtered in the state were born and raised in Ireland the live imports constitute a very small  percentage of the overall total national kill.

* as of June 9th.