Vol. 529 No. 1
437 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if his attention has been drawn to the large number of complaints by herd owners in relation to inaccuracies and omissions from the animal registration unit, County Cork, on the herd reconciliation forms issued to owners of cattle and livestock; and if he has any proposals to ensure that these problems are rectified and improved upon. [2323/01]
Although data recording under the cattle movement monitoring system – CMMS – commenced in 1996, for a variety of reasons, the data recorded on animal locations is not up to date in all cases. The entire purpose of the herd reconciliation project is to rectify this situation and to further improve the accuracy of the CMMS database so that it can be used more widely for future premia payments and to safeguard markets for Irish beef by ensuring its traceability.
In compiling the herd reconciliation statements, all animal events recorded on computer in 2000 – births, calving, on-farm deaths, exports, slaughterings, movements, premia applications etc. – were used to establish a last known location for each animal tag number. The year 2000 was selected as a basis for the exercise because it provided the most comprehensive and up to date information available. By using 2000 as the basis for the project, certain categories of animals were either omitted from or included on the printed list. Categories omitted comprised, for example: animals born in 1998 or 1999 and still in the herd of origin on which no premium was due or claimed during 2000; cows that were not registered as dams in 2000; cattle whose movements into a herd were not notified to CMMS; calves born on or before 31 December 2000 and not yet registered; calf registrations, movement notifications, slaughterings and exports in the last weeks of December 2000 which were not yet up on CMMS.
Of the 130,000 statements issued in early January, almost 100,000 have been completed and returned by herdowners. The feedback from most individual farmers has been very positive and I do not accept that a large number of complaints have been made by herdowners. Rather, farmers understand from the guidelines given to them why certain categories of animal may have been omitted from or included on the lists and have taken the opportunity presented to them to rectify inaccuracies.
I am confident that the herd reconciliation project will enhance the accuracy of the CMMS database. It will also provide a more focused opportunity for the future to monitor the level of compliance with notification obligations and to address failures or inaccuracies in reporting.
