Vol. 519 No. 4
27 Mr. Sheehan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he will postpone the introduction of the dairy herd health and hygiene certification, due to be introduced in June 2000, until December 2000 in order that certification can be carried out in line with their annual herd tests. [13343/00]
The scheme for the on-farm certification of dairy cows was relaunched in May of last year following negotiations with all the parties involved and is now operating reasonably well. While progress in having certification provided was slow to begin with, I am pleased to note that more recently there has been a significant upsurge in activity. The scheme is an important one for the industry as a whole and needs to be completed as quickly as possible. I therefore have no proposals for the postponement of the 30 June deadline. I would strongly urge producers to have the necessary certificate completed and submitted to their dairy-co-operative as soon as possible.
