An Irish MEP is set to push Brittany Ferries again on its decision to end its involvement in the live trade.

Ciaran Mullooly will meet with the leadership of the shipping company, a meeting that will include the chairperson of Brittany Ferries, Jean-Marc Roue, who was not at a previous meeting between the MEP and company management.

The meeting will take place today (Monday, September 7) in Roscoff, northern France, where Brittany Ferries is based.

Mullooly said he will formally call on the company to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the transportation of Irish livestock to mainland Europe.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, the Independent Ireland MEP said: "I'm here in Roscoff to meet not just with the chief executive, but the chairman of the company itself, a farmer from the farmer co-operative organisation which owns the company.

According to Mullooly, the withdrawal of Brittany Ferries from the live trade has "serious consequences" for Irish farmers, livestock exporters and Ireland's practical access to the European single market.

"We’re unhappy with the circumstances surrounding the closure of this business and asking them to reconsider it, especially in light of the clear demand from exporters and farmers at our meeting in Athlone that we would restore a two-boat system with competition and the availability to transport calves and weanlings to France five and six days a week," he said.

"More than 200,000 Irish calves alone are exported to mainland Europe in a typical year, in addition to other categories of livestock," Mullooly added.

The meeting today is also set to discuss protests and interference with livestock transport by animal welfare activists.

The Midlands-North West MEP said famers, transport operators, ferry employees and businesses "must be allowed to carry out legitimate trade".

Mullooly said he will ask the Brittany Ferries board to "recognise both the strategic importance and the commercial potential of restoring the service".

"Brittany Ferries was established by farmers for farmers who understood that access to markets depends on access to ships. That principal remains every bit as important today," he added.