Responding to a parliamentary question from Éamon Ó Cuív, Fianna Fáil’s agriculture spokesman, the Minister confirmed there were ‘ongoing discussions’ with the companies to rectify any problems.

He said: “There is an issue in regard to the carriage of live animals by roll-on roll-off ferries. Many of the companies do not want to do this. There is an ongoing discussion and I would need to check the most recent update in this respect.”

Deputy Ó Cuív said that cattle cannot be transported by boat from Dublin or Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead when ‘there is apparently no difficulty in transporting them from Larne to Stranraer or Cairnryan.’

However, the Minister said Britain is not the only market that Ireland is targeting and that our beef price is still ahead of most other European markets. “It is also important to put into context beef prices in Ireland,” he said. “For the vast majority of this year we were significantly above the average EU price – about 15%, more at times and overall somewhere between 5% and 15%. Recent reductions have brought this figure down but we are still above the average price at EU level,” he said.

Farm organisations have recently held meetings with one major shipping company in an attempt free up ships for moving live cattle to Britain.

The shipping company involved said health and safety concerns were one of the problems it had with moving cattle across the Irish Sea.