Th IFA have opposed suggestions of electronic EID tagging under the new €10 per ewe sheep scheme and said Minister Michael Creed must insist that EID is not part of it.

IFA president Joe Healy said sheep farmers are strongly opposed to compulsory EID for lambs and that the cost only impacts on them.

"Proposals from factories and others for the compulsory EID of lambs going direct to slaughter is an unnecessary cost imposed directly and only on farmers while returning no benefits to them."

Low income sector

IFA National Sheep Chairman John Lynskey described full EID as impractical, unnecessary and extremely cost prohibitive in what is a severely low-income sector, both lowland and hill.

“The €10/ewe scheme for sheep farmers is critical for the entire sheep sector and has been positively received. However, any erosion of this money from the pockets of sheep farmers either directly or indirectly with issues such as EID will have a very negative impact on how the 34,000 sheep farmers view the scheme and severely diminish its benefits to the sector," he said.

IFA has said the Minister for Agriculture must insist that EID is not part of the new €10 per ewe sheep scheme, as well as ensuring that the existing derogation is maintained for sheep farmers.

ICOS want full implementation

However, Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) have called for the full nationwide introduction of EID tagging and said it was "essential for the entire national flock."

ICOS national marts chairman, Michael Spellman said, “Establishing EID for the entire national flock would create opportunities for Ireland to differentiate the quality and traceability of our sheep meat products on international markets.”

ICOS National Marts Committee wants the full introduction of EID to be made for all sheep movements.

Michael also said introducing electronic tagging would "ensure differentiation, competitiveness and consumer appeal for our sheep meat exports on international markets where traceability and quality must be continually assured.

"On a practical farmer level, the issue which is of real concern to the livestock marts is that purchasers of store lambs now have a real administrative burden that was not there in the past. This is an unworkable situation for some farmers who are purchasing hundreds, perhaps thousands of store lambs, as manually recording a 12-digit individual code when buying and selling these animals is totally impractical and prone to error."

EID tagging has already been introduced in Northern Ireland, France and Belgium.

ICOS added that EID tagging will allow for more efficient animal recording and called on the Department of Agriculture to "embrace full EID within the sheep sector."

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