Mullooly hosting public meeting on ferry animal transport crisis
MEP Ciaran Mullooly has organised a public meeting for Athlone on the live animal export crisis looming since the announcement by Brittany Ferries of its intention to stop carrying livestock to France.
The meeting is on Saturday August 15 at 7.30pm at the Athlone Springs Hotel (N37 F9T3), and joining MEP Mullooly will be Michael Fitzmaurice TD and Independent Ireland TDs and councillors.
All farmers, cattle exporters and agricultural businesses are invited to attend.
Brittany Ferries announced its decision last week, and the move will leave Irish Ferries as the only remaining ferry operator carrying live animals from Ireland.
The decision follows sustained protests by animal-welfare campaigners over the transport of young, unweaned calves. The CEO Christophe Mathieu, in a meeting with MEP Mullooly and Deputy Fitzmaurice, said the activities of a small group of 25 protesters at Portsmouth Port had contributed to the decision.
Mr Mathieu said the disruption made “an absolute shambles” of the company’s Portsmouth operations on a daily basis.
He said Brittany Ferries had tried everything to control the situation including contacting the police in Portsmouth, the port authorities, and the Irish embassy in Paris, yet nobody had offered help.
MEP Mullooly said he is “deeply concerned”.
“I understand that Brittany Ferries has the capacity to carry nine livestock trucks, approximately 250 calves per sailing. There is currently no other ship capable of accommodating that level of livestock transport. The result, unless the minister for agriculture intervenes, will be a permanent reduction in Ireland’s livestock export capacity.”
He said Mr Mathieu stated he was aware of claims by protesters that the European Commission was critical of the Irish Government’s record on live animal transport, but had not seen any evidence of this.
“He said the protesters seemed to think that they had the backing of the European Commission despite the fact that there had been no inspection carried out at any stage by European Commission officials on any of their boats,” said MEP Mullooly.
“He said the only inspections that had been carried out were those by the Irish Dept of Agriculture and there were no complaints pending against Brittany Ferries relating to animal mistreatment on live exports.”
MEP Mullooly said the crisis raises questions about Ireland’s practical access to the EU Single Market: “As an island member state, Ireland depends on reliable maritime links to European markets.
“Without transport capacity, Irish farmers cannot fully benefit from the rights and opportunities the Single Market is intended to provide.”
Continuing, he said urgent engagement is now required between all of the key stakeholders to find a practical solution, particularly in the short term.