IFA president Joe Healy said it is clear from the most recent announcement by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed on his decision to impose compulsory EID tagging on sheep that he is not listening to sheep farmers.

Healy said that proposing a once-off subvention of €100 on tags completely underestimates the costs involved. He said that both the IFA and the Department have calculated that EID will cost an additional €2m per annum or up to €14m during the FoodWise programme.

The IFA president said: “The minister needs to stop spending sheep farmers’ money and step up to the mark on the real costs of EID that he is imposing on the sector.”

IFA national sheep chair Sean Dennehy said deferring the implementation date for EID to 1 June 2019 is a help as it could not go ahead from 1 October 2018 as originally announced by the minister.

At the recent meeting with the IFA, the Department requested that farmers using EID must mark or brand their sheep “in order to maintain traceability and ownership”.

Dennehy said this is a major flaw and the IFA made it very clear to the Department that EID cannot go ahead until a proper system of movement recording is put in place by the Department in all outlets.