Ireland's EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, has been accused of endangering the whole €150 million livestock trade between Ireland and Europe.
The allegation was made by Mr Derek Deane, chairman of the IFA's National Livestock Committee, who said Mr Byrne's draft rules on the transport of live animals would be extremely damaging to Ireland.
The IFA man said the Commissioner's proposal to abolish staging posts, restrict transport to a maximum of nine hours followed by an 11-hour rest period with another nine hours travel and so on, made no sense from an animal welfare perspective.
He added the proposals to insist that animals remain on the trucks for the entire journey, including the resting period combined with much higher stocking densities would make the entire roll-on/roll-off transport operation from Ireland to continental Europe not viable financially.
"In other words, Commissioner Byrne's proposals will put the roll on/roll off live export trade between Ireland and Europe out of business," he said.
Following a meeting with the EU Commissioner in Luxembourg this week, Mr Deane said it appeared Mr Byrne did not fully understand the live export and animal welfare issues and particularly the importance of this trade to Ireland. He said the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, and the Government must prevent Commissioner Byrne from restricting access to the EU Single Market with livestock.
Mr Deane said Commissioner Byrne had not taken account of the scientific data and facts relating to animal transport and welfare in these new proposals.
His proposals seemed to be based on the arguments put forward by the animal rights lobbyists to restrict or limit the live trade "based on perception and emotion" rather than on real scientific facts relating to animal transport and welfare. He said the EU draft rules were much more suited to the live transport of expensive pedigree animals on the continent, but would severely damage and restrict commercial live exports from Ireland to continental Europe.
Mr Deane said that Teagasc in Grange, Co Meath, has pioneered major scientific work on animal welfare and transport, based on scientific measurements, which proves that the transport of animals over long distances has no adverse affect on animal welfare. In addition, Teagasc concluded that there was no animal welfare advantage in transporting animals at a higher stocking density from the current level.
He added that live export trade played a crucial role in price competition and market outlets for the Irish beef and livestock sector.