The EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, yesterday defended his animal transport proposals, which exporters and farmers in the Republic are opposing.
He told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food they would have to forget about the status quo remaining in place because of the pressures from many EU countries for major change in transport regulations.
He said he was not inflexible on the issue of the transport of live animals and told the committee they should use the political system to seek amendments to the proposed regulations, which will be discussed by farm ministers next month.
Ireland, he said, was unique in so far as its live animal transporters used roll-on/roll-off ferries to transport animals and this was one area they should concentrate on. However, serious consideration had been given to the issue by the Commission and he wanted to point out that the time animals spent on board a ferry would be regarded as resting time for the animals. Mr Byrne has brought forward Commission proposals to limit journey times to nine hours with a minimum 12-hour rest period before resuming the journey.
It is also proposed to abolish staging posts, which could cause disruption to the trade in the Republic.
All the committee members said they opposed the idea of animals being left on trucks for the duration of a trip and said the abolition of staging posts (lairages), and the reduction of animal numbers on trucks, did not make any scientific sense.
But Mr Byrne told the committee the demand to close down staging posts was on animal health grounds because foot-and-mouth had been spread from Britain to the Netherlands via a staging post in France.
"That resulted in the largest outbreak of foot-and-mouth outside Britain in 2001 and the slaughter of many animals, and this is being sought by many countries on animal health grounds," he said.
Challenged by members of the committee - including Dr Mary Upton, Mr Billy Timmins and Mr Martin Ferris - on the scientific basis for leaving animals on trucks, the commissioner said the regulations put forward by him were based on the best scientific advice available.
Dealing with the increased costs involved, he said that he had been advised that these would be in the region of 1-1.5 per cent on beef prices. "It is going to end up that the consumer is going to have to pay for this," he said.
The Irish Farmers Association held a protest outside the Dáil to coincide with the commissioner's visit during which its deputy president, Mr Ruaidhrí Deasy, accused Mr Byrne of trying to appease the animal rights lobby.
He described the proposals as Draconian and said they had the potential to seriously damage the State's €200 million live export trade and called on the Government to oppose them.
The protest featured a state-of-the art €200,000 livestock transporter with air conditioning and water dispensing points for the animals for media inspection. Its owner, Cork exporter Mr David Murphy, said the new regulations meant the trade to mainland Europe would not be viable and they would increase stress on the animals being transported.