The agriculture minister condemned the animal abuse uncovered by RTÉ Investigates and said the issues raised would be “vigorously pursued” by the ongoing Department of Agriculture investigation.
Charlie McConlogh said: “What we saw was utterly unacceptable and in some instances illegal”, reports RTE.
RTÉ Investigates program ‘Milking It; Dairy’s Dirty Secret’ has exposed gross animal welfare violations at several livestock markets in Ireland. Some of the footage shows store employees repeatedly kicking the young calf. Animals were also thrown from trailers during delivery to the mortuary by both staff and farmers.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the footage shot as part of the RTÉ Investigates report as “repugnant”. Mr Varadkar said there would be “robust and timely” action would be taken against those caught in the video breaking the rules.
Leo Varadkar confirmed the Department of Agriculture’s investigation into what the program revealed. He said the sector’s reputation depends on compliance.
He answered Social Democrat Holly Cairns during questions from Dáil leaders. Holly Cairns said the RTÉ investigation revealed “cruel and inexcusable” behavior, which she said was a direct result of the government’s diary expansion policy.
Deputy Cairns said the government’s mantra was “no limits” when it came to ending milk quotas. Ms Cairns said the policy had made some calves “valueless and disposable”, reports RTE.
People before profit TD Paul Murphy wrote to Ceann Comhairle and said the Dáil had set aside time to debate the issues raised on the show before the summer break started on Thursday.
Murphy said the Dáil should hear from the Agriculture Minister about the nature of the investigation launched in light of the RTÉ investigation, adding that the program had exposed the “dark side of the dairy industry”.
The Department of Agriculture said of the program that as of 2021, more than 1,000 inspections by its officers at livestock markets had detected 96 animal welfare violations. The department did not tell the program how many convictions or fines were issued as a result of finding violations.
The program also investigated live animal exports and identified several shipments of calves to multiple European destinations. In one case, a lorry transporting calves from Wicklow to Barcelona was found to have breached EU rules on resting and feeding times for animals and working time limits for drivers.
Sinn Féin TD Claire Keran described much of what was revealed during the investigation as “vile” and said it “flies in the face of common decency”, reports RTE.
Referring to the obvious breach of animal welfare legislation, a spokesperson for the agriculture group said: “Laws need to be enforced and where there area breaches, there needs to be consequences,” reports RTE.
Agriculture Minister of State Martin Heydon said what the scheme revealed was “utterly unacceptable” and said animal welfare rules had to “must be upheld”, reports RTE.
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