Fuel Supports to the Agricultural Sector: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-21 ============================================================ Joe Conway (IND), Cultural and Educational Panel I begin by welcoming the Minister. It is the first time that I have met him face to face and I am delighted to be here to make my views known. As someone who was elected on the Cultural and Educational Panel, I found the debate today very educational. I have learned a lot from listening to colleagues. I know for a fact that the assistance package, for want of a better term, that was delivered last week by the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and his Government, in the panoply of aid packages across Europe, is one of the most generous. Senator O'Donovan attested to that earlier. I was impressed by the generosity and the ability to react to an ever evolving situation that looked, to my layman's eyes, to be getting nastier and more fractious by the day. I really worried about it. Senator Boyhan who has departed our company in the last few minutes, mentioned that it is important to manage expectations and the Government needs to be conscious of that. I would hate to see a situation arise where every pressure group could take to the streets, cause mayhem and get a dole-out within a few days. As the Government said, speaking within the recognised procedures to the recognised representative groups gives a robustness to the whole democratic process. I heard somebody suggest that the people out there were not engaged with but I do not accept that for a moment. Everybody was potentially engaged with. We do that every five years in a thing called a general election. I do not accept that it is necessary to cause mayhem on the streets. I missed a funeral in Dublin last Tuesday. One cannot go back and visit a funeral again when one is stopped from attending it because of a blockade on the road. I was not the only one. There were thousands of people who missed appointments and this, that and the other. I am getting slightly off topic but these are important points to make. We must manage expectations and not show a tendency to throw in the towel whenever a pressure group comes our way. The Government did well. It was a very generous package and as someone who is not involved in the agriculture sector, I want to thank the Minister for that. I want to raise another issue now. I want to advert not just to the implications for farmers and haulage contractors but also for shipping agents and shipping companies. In that realm, I draw Members' attention to the second paragraph of a letter sent by the Minister, Deputy Heydon, to Waterford City and County Council. It reads as follows: "The Department strongly condemns the mistreatment of any animal and takes the matter of animal welfare most seriously. Neglect of, or causing unnecessary suffering to, animals is not acceptable in our society". In the context of haulage and export and bearing that in mind, despite the ongoing conflict in the region large volumes of Irish cattle are still being exported to Israel, both directly from Ireland and from other EU member states. Since October 2023, for example, 9,000 young cattle have been shipped directly to Haifa from Greenore alone. Irish cattle can easily be identified by their tags. Not only do these animals have to contend with a long sea journey, which is costly for exporters, where they suffer from respiratory illness, ringworm, corneal ulcers, leg injuries, diarrhoea and varying degrees of heat stress among other things, they are arriving in to the middle of a so-called war hot zone. Sources at Haifa port have informed us that every day during hostilities barrages of rockets fall on to the port and surrounding areas where the quarantine centres and fattening farms are centred. It is beyond my understanding that any competent authority is still authorising shipments of this nature in the knowledge that animals are being put into great peril of life and limb and possibly the ultimate cruelty. Furthermore, the workers at the port operate there in fear of their lives and want to complete the unloading with unprecedented rapidity. It is observed that this haste involves the widespread use of electric prodding to get the cattle off the vessels as quickly as possible. It is clear that sending animals to Israel at this moment is sending them into extreme danger. Nowhere is safe. Much the same is happening in Lebanon with the current campaign. I am making these observations not with any animus towards legitimate trade but from what I hope is a moral perspective. We are all humans in this Chamber and we should show cause with all sentient creatures. It might be worthwhile for the Minister to address that in his reply. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-21