Two trial flights this week are to carry calves from Knock, Co Mayo, to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the Department of Agriculture has confirmed. The first shipment of 240 calves will leave Horan International Airport today with a Department of Agriculture veterinary inspector on board.
If this is successful, a second flight carrying a similar number of animals will leave on Friday with the approval of the Department.
In recent weeks the dedicated cargo vessel which had been carrying cattle to the Continent with the aid of a Government subvention of £1 million has ceased operating. An attempt by the live trade and producer groups to raise money to have the service continued has failed.
It has also been confirmed that a trial shipment of cattle will leave this week on an Irish Ferries vessel from Rosslare, Co Wexford, to Cherbourg. Carried in lorries on the ferry decks, the shipment will also be monitored by Department inspectors.
Exporters have been experiencing difficulty getting their live cattle to the Continent since 1994 when animal-welfare activists forced British-owned ferry companies to ban the carriage of live animals for anything other than breeding purposes.
Also today, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, travels to Cairo to attend the Agri Food Fair in the Egyptian capital. He is to meet senior officials to encourage them to continue buying Irish beef. He is also expected to raise the resumption of the live trade, which ended nearly two years ago.