Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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75. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the detail of beef imports for the first quarter of 2019; the number of tonnes imported; the countries from which such imports took place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28077/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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According to Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, imports of beef into Ireland for the first quarter of 2019 are relatively small, with 7,310 tonnes or €30.4m seen during this period. These figures are a reduction on the 11,714 tonnes, or €33.7m, registered during the same period in 2018. This equates to a 33% decline in volume.

In Q1 2019, the main country that we imported beef from was Great Britain, with 5,541 tonnes. This means that Great Britain makes up 75% off all our imported beef for the period in question, followed by Northern Ireland with 992 tonnes, or 13.5%, of the total.

Overall, EU member states made up 99% of all our beef imports, with 7,235 tonnes or €30m imported in the first quarter of 2019.  Imports from third countries during this period were very small with 2 tonnes being imported from Brazil, and 1 tonne from Switzerland.