asked the Minister for Agriculture whether any adjustment of the 1948 Trade Agreement has resulted from negotiations with the British Government concerning export of cattle and carcase meat from this country; and, if so, if he will furnish particulars.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - 1948 Trade Agreement.
Mr. Walsh
Informal talks at official level have taken place on the annex to the 1948 Trade Agreement. The talks have not yet been concluded.
Am I correct in saying that there is no limitation on our exports of dressed meat to any country under any of the conditions of the 1948 Agreement, that the percentage of live stock which we are entitled to export to destinations other than Britain under the 1948 Agreement, was never reached by our exporters in the last four years, and that shipping was never available to carry more than the agreement provided for?
Mr. Walsh
You would be wrong in saying that we were not limited under the 1948 Agreement so far as our meat trade is concerned.
About sending meat elsewhere?
Mr. Walsh
To Britain.
Are you not free to send unlimited quantities of fresh meat anywhere else?
Deputy Dillon ought to have the decency——
(Interruptions.)
Perhaps the Minister would answer my supplementary question. I asked him if there was any limitation in the 1948 Trade Agreement on our shipments of dressed beef or meat to any destination other than Great Britain, or if we had, in fact, exported in any year a number of cattle equal to the 10 per cent. provided for to continental destinations other than Great Britain?
Mr. Walsh
It is only since Fianna Fáil came back into office that this trade was built up.
That is not the question I asked. Surely, I am entitled to ask the Minister as to what the trade agreement provided.
He will not answer that.
It is necessary to ask the question in order to make their faces red.
May I ask the Minister whether Deputy Dillon has yet withdrawn the false statement he made with regard to the levy on cattle?
Will the Minister state whether in recent months he has received applications for permits from long-established firms in Central Europe, engaged in this trade, to have full facilities afforded to them?
Is it not a fact that it was the kick in the teeth which the Peron Government gave to the British that had a lot to do with the British waiving the provision relating to the 10 per cent. quota of live stock to be exported to countries outside Britain?
Question No. 59.