Vol. 516 No. 6
241 Mr. U. Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the plans, if any, he has to change the regulation that herd owners are legally obliged to use the current Department approved tags which are unfit and unsuitable for identification from birth to slaughter and in view of the fact that farmers can be fined and lose grants as a result of this product failure and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8992/00]
In accordance with EU and national regulations, herdowners are required to tag calves within 20 days of birth with two plastic eartags each bearing the same identity numbers. Eurotags Ltd (Mullinahone Co-op) was appointed as the sole supplier of approved cattle tags in respect of 1999 on foot of an open tendering competition conducted under national and EU procurement rules. The contract has since been extended for a further period of one year to 31 December 2000 and I have no plans to change the current arrangements in the interim.
A survey of tag loss rates carried out by Department staff in 1999 revealed that 0.6% of animals were missing both tags while 3.5% had one plastic tag missing. These loss rates compare more than favourably to the loss rates experienced with the brass eartags formerly used to identify cattle.
