COUNCILLORS clashed over whether the government should purchase its own ship to transport cattle internationally, with some saying it will protect a vulnerable industry while others claimed it wouldn’t fix the “botched system”.

At this week’s meeting of Cork County Council, County Mayor Cllr Bernard Moynihan (FF) suggested that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon should consider purchasing a ship to transport cattle to overseas markets.

He asked the council to write to the Minister to propose the idea.

Cllr Moynihan said Cork has the largest area of farmland in the country, with approximately 400,000 dairy cows on 4,000 dairy farms, accounting for a quarter of Ireland’s milk pool.

He added that the industry must be protected, especially after Brittany Ferries recently ceased all livestock transport.

Cllr Moynihan warned that another operator could withdraw from the market at any time, saying “someone could pull out of that in the morning”.

He said for the industry to remain viable, “we need a guaranteed, up to date vessel”.

He noted that rural Ireland relied on the exporting of live animals and cautioned that if this was interrupted, communities would be affected.

Cllr Alan Coleman (Ind) warned that if animals couldn’t be offloaded it would lead to backlogs and other issues, adding that “it’s important for the minister and his officials to get involved”.

He said there is a strong market in Europe for Irish beef and suggested that if funding wasn’t available to buy a ship, then leasing should be considered.

Cllr Peter O’Donoghue (Aontú) supported the motion, expressing concern that despite the industry being worth €500m, only one ferry company remained involved in live export in Ireland.

Several members highlighted the possibility for increased animal welfare standards if there was a state owned vessel.

However, Cllr Isobel Towse (SD) believed that this improvement wouldn’t go far enough.

She said the boat would be the shortest part of the journey and there would be no oversight during the “hundreds or thousands of miles on the back of trucks that would not be state owned and managed”.

“As people might have seen from 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,”

Cllr Towse said. She added that most of the exported cattle are an unintended by-product of the dairy industry that the government did not consider when the industry was rapidly expanded, resulting in a surplus of 200,000 bull calves every year.

She argued that “our dependency on dairy isn’t contingent on whether we export live surplus bull cattle or not”.

Cllr Towse said that with the use of sexed semen, which significantly improves the odds of producing female heifers, the number of surplus calves being born should be reduced.

She said if there was such a strong European market as others had suggested then “why can’t we raise the animals here and export the end product like we do with every other product”.

Cllr Moynihan warned that if all of what she proposed came to pass, “rural Ireland can forget it”.

Cllr John Collins (Ind Ire) strongly supported the motion and reiterated the benefits of leasing a ship, adding that he was disappointed but not surprised Cllr Towse didn’t support the motion.

Cllr Daniel Sexton (Ind Ire) said that as long as Ireland produces “five star beef” and there is a market for it, the industry will continue.

He added that a state-owned vessel would allow for improved animal welfare.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.