MEP: Heydon 'must be prepared to step in' if export capacity lost
An Irish MEP has said that Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon "must be prepared to step in" if transport capacity for livestock exports is lost.
As Agriland reported earlier, Brittany Ferries confirmed its plans to end its livestock transport services from Ireland to mainland Europe.
Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher said that the decision by the ferry operator to stop transporting calves to mainland Europe "significantly undermines" not just the calf export industry but Irish agriculture in general.
"The agriculture minister must be prepared to step in if the market fails to respond," he said.
Kelleher, who has worked on animal transport legislation at EU level, said that Brittany Ferries' decision is "a disaster for the calf export industry which supports the wider dairy sector in Ireland".
"It will have major implications for the wider agriculture sector in addition," he added.
Live animal exports from Ireland were valued at an estimated €480 million in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 40%.
Kelleher, an MEP for Ireland South, said that, while dairy-to-beef schemes and enhanced breeding can reduce the number of calves needing to be exported, there will "always be a requirement to access the markets on mainland Europe".
"Unless another operator enters the transport market, it will be next to impossible to maintain the same level of exports," according to Kelleher.
He said this will result in more animals remaining on the island of Ireland, thereby increasing Ireland's emissions and potential animal welfare issues, as Irish farms are "not designed to house this number of young animals".
"The minister must be prepared to intervene if the market fails to respond appropriately.
The MEP said that "too many livelihoods are at stake".
Hostility
According to Kelleher, there is "a hostility" to animals transport growing across the EU.
The revisions to the EU's Animal Transport Regulations are "taking too long", he said.
He called on Ireland to "show leadership and, if necessary, voluntarily improve its own rules while the rest of the EU catches up".
"It's too important a sector to not be proactive in finding new ways of getting these animals off our island," Kelleher said.
