Vol. 496 No. 6
224 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the ratio of Irish lambs to those imported for slaughter in factories in 1998; and if he will make a statement on this issue including the estimated economic effect on the farming industry. [23804/98]
The common organisation of the EU sheep market provides for free trade in both live animals and in meat. Ireland is a net beneficiary of this regime given that the 51,000 tonnes of sheepmeat exported annually, represents 75 per cent of our total production. The decision to import lambs for slaughter is a commercial one for the processing industry.
The total number of sheep slaughtered in export approved factories in the January-November 1998 period was 2.88 million, with slaughter in local abattoirs representing a further 800,000 approximately. No accurate data is available on the level of live lamb imports generally. However, my Department is aware via the ANIMO system of animal movement that during the period January-November 10,800 lambs were imported from Scotland, representing 0.3 per cent of the total slaughter for the period.
It is difficult to make an accurate economic assessment of the impact of these imports given that the UK is a significant exporter of sheepmeat and the relatively low percentage of throughput which these imports represent.
