Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 26 May 1998

Vol. 491 No. 3

Written Answers. - Animal Slaughterings.

Tony Gregory

Question:

188 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the total number of cattle, sheep, broiler chickens and pigs slaughtered in the Republic of Ireland in each of the years 1996 and 1997; and the number of cattle, sheep and broiler chickens slaughtered by religious method without first being stunned. [11702/98]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

According to official figures slaughterings of animals in 1996 and 1997 were as follows:—

EU Approved Premises

	Cattle	Sheep	Pigs	Broiler Chickens
1996	1.5143m	3.737m	2.581m	58.9m
1997	1.65m	3.103m	2.759m	60.7m

In addition, the following slaughterings took place at local authority abattoirs:—

Local Authority Abattoirs

	Cattle	Sheep	Pigs
1996	0.136m	0.629m	0.346m
1997	0.151m	0.662m	0.306m

All slaughterings at premises under the supervision of my Department took place in accordance with the provisions of the European Communities (Protection of Animals at Time of Slaughter) Regulations, 1995 (S. I. No. 114 of 1995). These regulations lay down standards for the protection of animals at the time of slaughter and give effect to Council Directive 93/119/EC of 22 December 1993.

Although there are no official statistics available relating to ritual slaughtering of animals, I can confirm that no ritual slaughterings of broiler chickens took place in premises supervised by my Department in either year. In regard to the other livestock, ritual slaughterings are mainly in respect of exports of meat to Islamic countries. There were no exports of sheepmeat or pigmeat to such countries in either 1996 or 1997.

In the case of beef exports to countries which traditionally request slaughtering by ritual methods, 97,000 tonnes were exported 1996 and 126,000 tonnes were exported in 1997. These figures would equate to approximately 290,000 and 378,000 heads of cattle.