Donegal Mart manager Eimear McGuinness has called for a grant of 80% to facilitate the upgrading of marts to electronically read and record the identification details of cattle being traded.

Currently, a grant of 40% is being offered to marts, however, which McGuinness described as “absolutely crap”.

Her criticism comes as the Department of Agriculture plans to do away with the current blue card system and have a streamlined system of reading electronic ear tags in-place across all livestock marts by 2025.

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“For this small mart alone, I got an estimate of €20,000 to install the system. [The grant] needs to be 80% at least, that’s how much we got to install the sheep system.

“This Minister has told us that installing this system is not compulsory. I think it’s dishonest to say that marts don’t need to do this – we do if blue cards are being done away with. They can’t do this without us, so they’re going to have to pay for it,” McGuinness told the Irish Farmers Journal.

With a September closing date for the grant, it will be “impossible” for all 90 plus marts to have this system in place by then, McGuinness argued.

She called on Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to get ICOS, Associated Livestock Marts (ALM) and Mart Managers of Ireland around the table for a consultation.

“As far as I’m concerned, the Department have dealt with it very badly. They’re letting us think that other marts are going for the grant and they’re playing a game of cat and mouse with us I think at the minute,” she said.