The Irish Farmers' Association will today mount a protest against strict new EU animal transportation proposals at Dáil Éireann where the EU commissioner, Mr David Byrne, is to address the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food. Seán MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent, reports.
The EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection has been targeted by the farm organisation because it blames him for the stringency of the proposed new regulations, which are expected to become law soon.
The new draft regulations propose restricting transport of animals to a maximum of nine hours followed by a 12-hour rest period, repeating the system to the end of the journey and ending the practice of using lairages or staging posts.
The draft regulations also propose that animals remain on trucks for the entire journey, including the resting period, and this, according to the IFA, would effectively mean an end to the €150 million livestock trade between Ireland and the rest of Europe.
The IFA and the livestock exporters' association believe the increased costs and the new stocking densities allowed on transporters will be extremely damaging to the Irish livestock export trade and severely restrict Ireland's ability to export cattle and sheep abroad.
When he announced details of the proposed new rules in July, the commissioner accepted that the regulations would increase transport costs by 20 per cent.
However, he said the status quo on animal transport in Europe was not acceptable, and citizens wanted animals to be treated in a dignified manner.
The proposals, he said, were a compromise between those in Europe who wanted the live trade in animals to cease and those who wanted the trade to continue.
What was being proposed, he said, would allow the trade to continue but would also involve a small increase in cost.
The regulations will be discussed by EU farm ministers at their October meeting and, as it now stands, nine countries in the EU favour an eight-hour time limit on journeys and five, including Ireland, want the EU to allow longer journey time.
They have argued that tougher enforcement of rules, better vehicles and training of drivers and animal-handlers would stop animals suffering, not time limits on journeys.
The live export of cattle from Ireland has recovered since the foot-and-mouth crisis of 2001 which severely restricted the movement of animals across the Union.