The second of Ireland’s equine censuses took place last Wednesday evening. Some 29,000 registered premises across the country should have received their forms the day before from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). You have until 16 December to fill them out.

Any horse, pony, donkey, mule or zebra (yep, it’s on the list) kept on your premises overnight on 30 November must be included in your census form.

Secure portal

There were a few glitches with the DAFM Equine Census Portal last year as many of us can testify, and while paper census returns will be accepted by his department, Minister McConalogue strongly encourages keepers to submit their information online, through the dedicated secure portal on agfood.ie.

For those who did fill out the census using the portal last year, the good news is your details are logged for 2022 and will save you having to input all the animal UELN numbers and other details again.

Why do we have a census? The census is required by the EU Animal Health Law. A profile of all equines present on a farm or holding on the census date will be created on the department’s Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) system, which houses the central equine database.

E-passports

Last week saw calls from Senator Boyhan in the Seanad to provide equine owners with direct access to the AIM system so they can swiftly let the Department know when an equine moves (which we all know they do more than any other agricultural animal).

Minister McConologue responded by saying he intends to approve an equine e-passport shortly, which will without doubt have enormous benefits in terms of real-time tracing of the movements and ownership of equines.

Keepers who do not return a completed census return will not have an equine profile and may not be eligible to apply for equine-related DAFM schemes and grants in the future.

Things to know

A few things to know if you’re filling out a census for the first time: to register with agfood.ie, the applicant keeper must provide his/her date of birth, PPSN, email address and phone number.

Login details will be sent out to you in the post within 3-4 days for added security. You will be requested to record a mobile telephone number, to which a code will be sent each time you log-on to the portal

Bureaucracy

It’s an offense to keep any equines on a premises that is not registered with DAFM. It’s also an offense not to have a passport for each animal.

The bureaucracy of keeping equines is becoming more joined-up: no registration- no access to government funds is the way it’s heading by the looks of it. Tough for some less computer literate than others.

However, there is help if you’re struggling with the digital form-filling. Anyone seeking assistance with submitting census data, either on paper or online, should contact the department’s AIM Division by email to: equinecensus2022@agriculture.gov.ie or by phone at 01 5058881.