Michael Fitzmaurice: Warns EU Rules Could End Live Exports

I think for the committee, just to put it on the record as well in fairness, the committee and the Secretariat, they asked other large exporters but they weren't available. Just to put that on the record, they just didn't have chosen a few, a number of them was asked but they weren't available, right? Myself and Paul are going together with our two aides, if that's OK with you Chairman? Yes. And I'll ask seven questions, we'll send a copy of them over the way you can address them because I want them addressed one by one. Fairly snappy, fairly quick, I don't want Labour on them. Right, it has come to my attention that a few counties, the clearness of Tattle going out of the country, you need vids. Paddy's Day you needed vids. Other days I had Sundays and weekends. There is problems in some counties. Has that been encountered and what negotiations have gone on to resolve that? That's the first question. Blue Tongue situation in relation to livestock. Can you explain, some people say that if you vaccinate cattle that some countries may not accept them, no more than the debate going on in TB. Can you clarify that? Has Board B ever gone with you to get new clients? I know you said they give a rebate. Have they gone with you to get new clients? Or have you to do a solo run like a footballer and try and score the point? Rather than Board B have gone with you? I want that clarified very clearly. European legislation, the 919, especially in Cass and Larkin, I think you need to come in on this. You might be doing that Derek. The 919, do we need more marriages in Ireland? How are we going to solve the 919? Or, are you looking at, or have you sought any funding with the department in getting, if you look at a calf now, a Friesian calf was worth 50 euro, 40 euro a few years ago. They're worth 300 euro now or 350 and maybe more. Have you looked at flagging them is a question in relation to that. In the exporters to third countries, how available is chartering a boat? I know that some of the countries or some of the people will do it or you do it yourselves. How available is that? And what's the future in that? Is there huge markets there? And in relation to the export sector long term, what does it look like in going forward to the third countries and to European countries? You're talking about problems, Larkin and Spain, in distances. And how do we address that to get that resolved? And I think when you're involved in the exporters, not alone cattle, we want to talk about pigs and sheep as well. What's the future going forward in that? Paul is coming in next. In relation to the cleared vets, it's not something that I have... No, that's Larkin. Sorry. Okay, so we'll start off with the first one, which was the clearing loads by the vets. I personally am not aware of any real problems with securing vets, to be honest with that. No one has brought that to my attention. I do accept that we've had some exporters who have come to us to say that they had difficulty securing vets at the weekend because one of the ferries is now operating on a Sunday. But it's my understanding that the vets are government employees and therefore it's their rules. So I think that I'm not really in a position to answer that. I do know that there's difficulty getting vets, and I think it should be maybe a question put to the Department of Agriculture. Will they make their vets available on holidays and on weekends? Personally, for me, I think they should be, but I'm not their employer. You're satisfied that they're available to you when you need to set sail? I know that they may not be available in all counties at all times during their holidays or during weekends. I have heard before that there's difficulty in getting the department vets. It's not just a vet. You have perhaps two vets on site and then you have AOs as well. So there could be three or four department officials in your yard the morning of that export. So it's not just as simple as a vet rocking off. They also have the opportunity to clear the cattle the day before they go. So that's another option that the department could take if they choose to do so. My understanding is that that doesn't happen an awful lot here in Ireland, but it can do. It is within their remit to clear them the day before and allow them to go the following day. But yes, I do know that people have said that they can't get vets on holidays, and I know that there may be difficulty sometimes getting them on Sundays. But I would counter that by saying if there was some sort of a problem, maybe really, really bad weather, or you had large amounts of cattle that have now been standing around for a long time that the vets may be more agreeable. So that would be that. On the Blue Tongue issue, the Blue Tongue situation in Europe, particularly regarding export clearances and market confidence, that's the same. I would iterate that. Yes, there are some countries who are not taking the cattle because they're vaccinated and who are refusing to take them because they're not satisfied with the conditions of the vaccine. They're not satisfied with the evidence of the vaccine. They're not satisfied with the efficacy or with the figures coming out for reproduction afterwards. So they're not satisfied, and some countries refuse to take it. Pardon? Could we lose market over there? We already have lost one or two countries. We already have lost one or two countries, and I don't think we'll lose more, but we already have lost one or two. And if we lose any country, it's a problem. One of the countries we've lost at the moment, I think from memory, took 26,000 calves last year, 29,000 head of animals in total. They've closed their doors. Okay. So that's 29,000 cattle that are not going. And it's also, those countries will still be buying cattle. They're just not buying it from Ireland. So that's the difficulty. Keep going. That's great. Number three, has Board B secured any new clients or opened an international market? Well, Board B have on occasion provided customers, and they provide them to all the exporters to avail of. Whether there's a lead at the end of that or not is another thing. Have Board B accompanied me, or I can only speak for me. I have never been accompanied by Board B to any trade that I have brought into Ireland. I have brought in alone. I've never been accompanied. Okay. Keep going. The impact of current and proposed European legislation, it's crippling, is the simple answer to that. I see nothing in the new legislation coming down that there's going to be in any way of any assistance to Ireland. The only thing that I see coming through is another kneel in the coffin. And I don't think that I'm exaggerating when I say that if the new legislation is implemented as they have drafted, it will end. Have you engaged with the MEPs? We're trying, and we're working really hard. Again, I don't want to continually labour the point, but that is something that I'm here in front of you today at my own cost. So is Mr. Maxwell. But Mr. Maxwell is an exporter. I am not. Right. So when I go to Brussels and try to engage with an MEP, first of all, who am I? Why should they speak to me? And secondly, who's covering it? What are the main legislative barriers that you see coming down the tracks? All of them, to be honest with you, all of them are critical. It will decimate Irish livestock exports by road. When these come in, it will end it. I can't exaggerate that enough. You looked at flying the likes of castes, as I touched on earlier. One of the exporters, Deputy, has done flights to Spain. I know it was the subject of a Member's Parliament question before. It was alarming how he got the information so fast, but that's another story. It was very successful. It was done with difficulty. I have to say that there was reticence on behalf of the state at some levels to accommodate it. They weren't flown from here. They weren't flown from the state. Maybe they weren't given assistance that perhaps the exporter required at the time. But they were flown. They were flown to Libya. It was extremely successful. It was extremely successful. It couldn't have been successful enough. We had the videos live coming directly from the plane and sent back to here to our own Deputy Chief Fett as fast as they were touching the ground. Just for the committee, right, we have that. But just for the committee to summarise, because we've watched the clock, our heels tappered. The bottom line on it is, Germany is very much in favour of these regulations. It is going to be crippling to Ireland, so we need to get our MEPs on board. And our committee needs to know that. Thank you. Go on to the next one. There's four vessels at the moment passed. Four? Four livestock vessels. It's back to three now. Okay. Yeah, there's three vessels passed. At the moment there's two. That's for third countries? For anywhere. Okay. Alright. Let's go ahead. Go on to the next one. The price of calves domestically. What factors are preventing a greater volume of calves from being exported to European markets? It's simply transport legislation. And then we have the two primary larriages in France are there. So when both of those larriages have hit capacity, they're at capacity. And that's it. Now there's extra shipping going on in the sense that, weather permitting, there's a ship almost every day. So we can get larger volumes out but not overcrowding the larriages. So in order to increase the stuff going out, the heads going out, the truss going out, we would have to find more accommodation for them in France. And that's difficult enough. Go on, thanks. Long-term livestock exports, it's worrying. It is worrying. Vessels at the moment, on vessels are a great relief as long as they may continue. But in terms of transporting by road, it is perilous. How much longer is it actually going to be viable will depend on these changes coming through from the Commission. Just for interest's sake, the 29-hour rule. Because we're an island state, up to the 20th of January we had a small leniency on that to get us down to the south of France, either to Bourg-en-Brest or to Bordeaux. That's wiped out now. All the trucks either have to stop in Cherbourg. When the calves are gone and we can't get into Cherbourg, you can go to Potiers where the facilities are not as good. What solves it? Give me a solution. We need to get a small bit of a transition. We're talking about 45 minutes. They're stopping us doing our journey alongs for 45 minutes. You know, the cattle, really and truly, the ferry journey is 17 hours. They have a rest on the ferry for 17 hours. There has to be some bit of a derogation for us being an island state. There is always leniency. In Australia, when they bring in the new regulations, they give you a transition period. They told us on the 20th of January they were changing this room. There's no room. There's not enough Learage space. You're crippled. For instance, tomorrow, there's 24 spaces on Irish ferries and there's 9 on Brittany ferries. There's 20 spaces in Cherbourg to Learage. Can you go on to the next question? The problem with that, too, would be that in terms of the island nation, it does need to have a slightly more concern given to it by the Commission because exporters themselves, they're curtailed by the 29-hour rule which is brought in by the Commission, but they're not in control of the weather. They're not in control of a slower-moving vessel. They're not in control of a myriad of things. When the vessel takes longer, their journey has taken longer, and then that's reflected poorly then on the length of time that the journey took. So what Mr. Maxwell was saying, for the sake of 45 minutes, they should be, in my view, certainly they should be allowed to continue on to those Learages in the south of France and in Bourbon-Brest. I have to be honest as well. We are engaging with the Department at the moment to see if there's something we can find there, and we're hoping that will be looked upon favorably, that they will see the need to allow us to continue on to that.