It comes IFA President Joe Healy was on the ground in Cherbourg, Normandy, France, this week visiting the Pignet Lairage.

Healy said an additional 600 calves could be delivered within days with some co-operation from the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed and the French authorities.

He said Minister Creed must request the French authorities to approve an extension which would to add this extra capacity in Cherbourg. With the additional 400 places announced late last week, it could increase capacity by 3,000 per week over three sailings, to 15,000 calves per week, according to IFA.

The IFA has called on Minister Creed to also allow the use of the facility at Abbeville, France which can act IFA said as an overflow lairage in light of the backlog caused by the exceptional bad sailing weather. IFA claimed this was permitted in previous years.