Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 16 May 2001

Vol. 536 No. 3

Written Answers - Sheep Identification System.

Brendan Smith

Question:

90 Mr. B. Smith asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the commencement date and timescale for individual tagging of sheep; the arrangements which will apply to sheep from Northern Ireland and to imports from Great Britain; the progress that has been achieved to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14047/01]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (Mr. Walsh)

I have already signalled, in the House and elsewhere, my intention to introduce without delay a comprehensive identification system for sheep, based on the individual identification of all sheep by tagging. This system will be called the National Sheep identification System, NSIS. My Department has virtually completed all the required preparatory work on this project and NSIS will go live and be operational nationally within the next few weeks. A full information pack on the detailed operation of NSIS will issue to farmers within the next week or so. I anticipate all elements of NSIS being in place within the current month, with a date in early June being specified as the date after which it will be illegal to trade in untagged sheep.

Eight companies have been approved to supply tags to farmers. The process of ordering tags will be a very simple one for farmers and will involve a computer-based interaction between each supplier and the Department, whereby herd or flock numbers will be validated, numerical sequences of tags assigned and data on individual orders captured for monitoring purposes.

Under NSIS, sheep imported into the State from the UK including Northern Ireland or any other member state and which are going onto a holding must be tagged with and retain a red import tag and must also retain the tag of origin. Imported sheep which are going direct to slaughter must retain the tags inserted in their ears in the member state from which they have been imported. Slaughter plants will be required, as part of NSIS, to read the tag of each sheep they accept for slaughter and to link in each case the tag number to the carcass number assigned to that animal.

With the introduction of NSIS, Ireland will for the first time have a system capable of providing full traceability for all sheep, on an individual animal basis. This will be of significant benefit, most notably in terms of disease control, marketing, adherence to current and prospective EU requirements and the implementation of the relevant recommendations of the sheepmeat forum which reported in October 1999. I consider the introduction of NSIS to be a most important step and one on which we can build further advances as we move forward.