Farmers and farm bodies have expressed concerns over pricing in the wake of a new cattle tag tender.

As revealed on farmersjournal.ie last week, the Department of Agriculture, following a legal challenge, decided to scrap the tender for a single supplier and replaced it with the need to have multiple suppliers.

Concerns were raised that should the price of cattle tags remain unregulated by the Department, the influence of multiple suppliers and competition may lead to smaller herd owners paying more per tag than larger herd owners through price deals.

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Deputy president of the ICMSA Pat Mc Cormack insists that all should be done by the Department to ensure that the influence of competition does not have a negative impact on smaller farmers.

“There are concerns amongst farmers that under the new system, special deals could be done for specific groups of farmers that benefit them relative to the majority,” McCormack said.

“All farmers must be treated equally under the new arrangements and it is important that tags are no more expensive than under the previous regime,” he continued.

In the old single-supplier system, prices were fixed by the Department; however, it is still unknown what pricing policy the Department will adopt in the new multiple-supplier model.

Mullinahone has been the sole supplier of cattle tags for the past 14 years.