Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 February 2026
256. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the quantity in number of head and value in euro, by animal category (details supplied) of live sheep exported from the State, by the country that it was exported to over the past ten calendar years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10511/26]
View answer257. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the quantity in head and value in euro by animal category (details supplied) of live sheep imported into the State, by the country that it was imported from over the past ten calendar years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10512/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 256 and 257 together.
All live animals being consigned into and out of the State must travel with a health certificate validated by an official veterinarian specifying that the animals satisfy the basic animal health requirements set out in relevant EU regulations.
My department does not retain information on veterinary certification for sheep consigned prior to 2017 and does not record the value or animal type of live sheep exported from or imported into Ireland.
Based on the latest data extracted from the EU TRACES database used to record consignments, the table hereunder shows the annual quantities of live sheep movements into and out of the State for the years 2017 to 2025 inclusive.
Additional detail on live sheep movements during that period is provided in the attached spreadsheet. A limitation regarding the presented import data is that UK-origin ovines are not disaggregated between Northern Ireland (N.I.) and Great Britain for the years 2017 to 2020 inclusive. Thereafter, sheep originating in N.I. are categorised and reported separately from the remainder of the United Kingdom (UK). Apart from the UK, all other sheep imports in the other category originate from EU member states.
|
Year |
Quantity exported (no. of head) |
Quantity imported (no. of head) |
|
2017 |
35,356 |
491,710 |
|
2018 |
20,769 |
517,182 |
|
2019 |
7,161 |
456,898 |
|
2020 |
27,962 |
442,836 |
|
2021 |
19,611 |
370,057 |
|
2022 |
13,652 |
419,338 |
|
2023 |
27,110 |
429,802 |
|
2024 |
47,240 |
365,613 |
|
2025 |
12,602 |
271,766 |
