The Irish Farmers' Association has had what it described as a "positive meeting" with officials from EU Health and Consumer Commissioner David Byrne's office in Brussels yesterday on the issue of strict new animal transport regulations.
The IFA, the other farm bodies and the Irish Live Exporters' Association claim the proposed regulations, which will limit the length of journeys to nine hours, with a 12- hour rest, will make live cattle and sheep exports from Ireland uneconomic.
The Commissioner also announced plans to abolish staging posts (lairage) facilities for animals in transit. The proposals also lower the density of animals which may be carried on lorries and specify that animals remain on lorries for the duration of journeys.
Following yesterday's meeting an IFA spokesman said Mr Byrne's officials seemed to have taken the concerns of exporters and farmers on board. Those difficulties were outlined in Brussels on Tuesday to the president of the EU Council of Farm Ministers, Mr Giovanni Alemanno, when he met the IFA president Mr John Dillon.
Mr Dillon told Mr Alemanno that the new proposals would prove to be detrimental to the important live export trade from Ireland unless they were radically reformed and that theycould severely restrict Irish access to the EU single market for live cattle.
He said the proposal to abolish staging posts was a problem for Irish live exports, adding that the proposal to restrict transport to a maximum of nine hours made no sense from an animal welfare perspective.
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 financially unviable.
"In other words, these proposals will put the roll on/roll off live export trade between Ireland and Europe out of business," said Mr Dillon.