The Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said he is considering the scope for the possibility of introducing mandatory electronic identification (EID) tagging of cattle.

Speaking in response to a parliamentary question from TD Willie Penrose this week, Minister Creed said he is considering making EID tagging compulsory in the context of the benefits that EID will provide to all interested stakeholders.

“The development of a plan to implement EID will require consultation with stakeholders, including farm organisations, mart organisations, Meat Industry Ireland and approved tag suppliers.

“My officials have had some preliminary discussions with the farm organisations on the introduction of EID recently,” he said.

The Department of Agriculture already provides for the use of EID tags in the supply of cattle tags to farmers by approved tag suppliers.

“In this regard, herdkeepers can voluntarily choose to identify bovine animals using a conventional and electronic tag.

“If a keeper wishes to use EID on all the animals in the herd, a request should be made to the Regional Veterinary Office whereby one of the tags can be removed under RVO supervision and replaced with EID tags matching the number on the conventional tag. In 2017, EID tags represented approximately 10% of the market for cattle tags," he said.

EU regulations

Minister Creed said that Regulation (EU) No 653/2014 provides for the introduction of electronic identification of bovines on a voluntary basis by 18 July 2019.

“The European Commission plans to introduce the required Implementing and Delegated Acts prior to July 2019 and, in this regard, my Department will keep the position under review at EU level.

“Each member state is required to have facilities in place to provide bovine EID on a voluntary basis by 18 July 2019.

“A member state may introduce national provisions for mandatory bovine electronic identification.”

Harnessing the benefits

It is important to harness the benefits of electronic developments in developing and underpinning the system to ensure that Ireland continues to have an effective and future proof system, the minister said.

“In that context, I am mindful of developments internationally where many competitor countries are now moving towards the use of EID in their cattle populations.”

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