To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what steps he is taking to ensure the welfare of animals at the Port of Larne.

Mr Poots (The Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs)

Welfare checks on all animals moving through Larne port are conducted by a veterinary-led portal inspection team. In relation to imports, all farmed livestock are unloaded at approved facilities, where a detailed veterinary health and welfare assessment is completed before any onward travel is permitted. For other species, the same general rules apply to welfare checks. Those animals, however, are generally inspected on the vehicle and unloaded only if a welfare problem is suspected. In addition, documentary checks are completed as part of the overall welfare assessment to ensure that the vehicle is approved and fit for purpose, the attendants are competent and the journey is in line with legislative parameters. For animals moving to Great Britain through Larne port, a general welfare assessment is conducted on all consignments to ensure compliance with the relevant welfare legislation before onward travel is permitted. Those checks are in addition to similar checks completed by the certifying official veterinarian (OV) at the premises of origin. For dogs, an assessment is made of the animals' fitness to travel and the conditions of travel only where it is a commercial transaction or there are more than five animals being transported. The same documentary checks as for livestock relating to the transporter and the vehicle apply to the transport of dogs. Should any adverse findings be disclosed during welfare inspections, all affected animals will be detained and treated in accordance with the nature of the findings. An associated range of enforcement measures are available to Department officials, including formal notices, a penalty-based system for transport authorisation, disqualification and potential prosecution.

Mr Poots

Were there welfare issues, my veterinarians — people who specialise in animal welfare — would be obliged to draw them to my attention, and they have not done that. If they have those issues, I am sure that they will draw them to my attention.

Mr Beggs

Ewe lambs have been stranded in Scotland, there have been restrictions on movements to agricultural shows, and there has been much talk of easing and removing the restrictions. How many live animals have come into Northern Ireland from GB, and how many have gone from Northern Ireland to GB? When will all the new regulations be printed, so that we understand what is being proposed?

Mr Poots

I will clarify for the Member that livestock checks have taken place at the port of Larne for around 20 years, and certainly since the foot-and-mouth outbreak. Those checks ensure that the fine animal health status that we have here is maintained and should not be confused with the impact of the Northern Ireland protocol. However, the European Union has made it incredibly difficult for people who show livestock in Great Britain. That has been hugely damaging to the pedigree sector and, indeed, for the important importation of lambs from Scotland, which generally happens at this time of the year and augments our hill farms in particular. Considerable work has been done by veterinary officials to deal with all of those issues. My veterinary officials have proved to the European Union, beyond all reasonable doubt, that this causes no danger, impact or harm to the European Union's single market and, therefore, at this stage, any potential delays are political delays.

Mr McGuigan

I will follow on from the two previous questions. In the interests of animal welfare, can the Minister confirm that he has enough veterinary staff in the Department to carry out the checks at Larne?

Mr Poots

Yes, we have. It would be illogical to transfer veterinary staff to carry out checks on, for example, groupage, where a lorry carries maybe 300 different food items to be used in a store such as Sainsbury's that does not have a base in the Republic of Ireland. Yet, that is being requested of us. If the Member believes that checking such goods, which pose no threat to the European Union's single market, would be a good use of a veterinarian's time, as opposed to dealing with issues such as bovine TB, Johne's disease and the many other issues that are looked after by the Department's vets, he should stand up and say that. I do not think that it is a good use of a veterinarian's time.

Mr O'Toole

Will the Minister agree with me and confirm, as he did earlier, that there have always been animal health checks at the port of Larne and the Irish Sea and, that, if some people got their way and we put a border for sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) goods on the island of Ireland, farmers in this place would face two sets of checks: one when moving goods onto the island of Ireland and another when moving goods from Northern Ireland into the Republic? Clearly, we all want to see checks minimised, but, given that checks have already existed at seaports, does it not make sense to consolidate them in one location?

Mr Poots

A considerable element of the checks on live animals have always taken place. I have indicated that I am happy to assist the European Union to ensure that goods with the potential risk of entering the Republic of Ireland are checked on its behalf. They should pay for that, mind you, because it prevents goods from entering the European Union through Ireland, and those checks should not be paid for from our purse. Nonetheless, we do not have to do those checks at Newry or the Fermanagh border; they can be done elsewhere. They do not have to be done at the ports either. However, we can do that, and that should be separated from the goods that are to remain in Northern Ireland. There should be no internal barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland in that circumstance.