Don't sink our cattle-ship!
Cork County Council is to call on the Government of Ireland to purchase its own ship to transport cattle from Ireland to overseas buyers.
The call came in a motion floated by the Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Bernard Moynihan (FF) who called on the Minister for Agriculture to purchase a state-owned ship dedicated to transporting live cattle from Ireland its international markets.
Cllr Moynihan’s motion comes following an announcement by Brittany Ferries in August that it would no longer be transporting live animals from Ireland, leaving Irish exporters heavily reliant on Irish Ferries as the sole remaining operator to reach mainland Europe.
The motion received almost unanimous support across the chamber, with councillors noting the increased level of control and assurance such a purchase would grant the country when it comes to its cattle exports.
Fianna Fáil councillor Gearóid Murphy said: “We're an island; the only way that we can export live animals is for them to be exported by sea. So as a net-producing nation, there will always be demand for this service.
“State ownership would allow the Government more control over this process and, in case of any emergency, would allow this service to continue.”
Independent councillor Alan Coleman also supported the motion, saying that the decision by Brittany Ferries to withdraw has created a crisis in the farming community.
He said: “I think it's important that the minister and his officials get involved and come up with a solution, perhaps purchasing or maybe leasing, because leasing seems to be a big thing in the shipping industry.
“It is important that these animals get onto the continent because given the nitrate restrictors that we have here, if we're not going to move large volumes of animals off the island, agriculture will actually shrink even more dramatically.”
Not all councillors were in favour of the motion however, with Social Democrats councillor Isobel Towse suggesting Ireland should focus on getting rid of the need for so many cattle to be shipped abroad in the first place.
She said: “As many people might have seen the RTÉ Investigates documentary a couple of years ago, it's very difficult to export live cattle out of Ireland in a way that meets animal welfare standards.
“The majority of these cattle are a biproduct of the dairy industry and that documentary also showed that the Government didn't even think ahead to realise that the consequence of the rapid expansion of dairy would create such a huge surplus of 200 bull calves every single year.
“We should reduce the number of surplus calves born in the first place, and I think we should be focusing our efforts on that rather than keeping a botched system going,” added Cllr Towse.
Speaking after Cllr Towse, Independent councillor John Collins said he wasn’t surprised that the Social Democrats objected to the motion, remarking that if they had their way, “they'd have us back sitting on a stool milking a cow”.
The mayor’s motion was passed by the council and a letter will be sent to the Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon TD.