I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to address the joint committee again. I am finishing my term as chairman of the National Sheep Association and I want to thank the committee for pressing the sheep agenda, particularly in respect of the €18 million unused CAP funds and the hill payment. It might not be as much as we like but I appreciate the committee's help in advancing that case. Hopefully it is the sign of a better future for sheep farming.
I will deal with what EID means for the farmer, industry, factory and the mart industry. There is no shred of evidence that this was a better system for the consumer, the factory, the farmer and everybody involved. We are straightforward about this. We have taken our problem to Brussels. The Commission has agreed that the readers would be only 95% accurate. This is crucial.
I will give an example of what this will mean for a farmer. Rolling out a new system involves more than just the electronic tag. It involves individual tagging from birth. Each sheep will have an individual number from birth. That is very complex. Every day in Ballinrobe, Tullow, Blessington, Macroom and all over the country, farmers buy 50 ewe lambs in batches of ten from five different farmers. Up to 12 months of age those lambs do not have to be electronically tagged. That is being flagged as a solution to the problem but it is not. They must be brought home.
These animals will carry a 12 digit manual number. The farmer will have to bring in the lambs from five flocks and read each animal individually. He will have to write down a total of 600 numbers and send them to Mullinahone, or to Cormac in Tuam, wherever the tag supplier is based. He must do that because the external number on the electronic tag must be identical to the tag in the lamb's ear. Writing down those numbers correctly will be a mammoth task. If everything goes right, the tags will return in a fortnight. The farmer must then select the lambs from the flock and match up each tag. There is great potential for inaccuracy, mistakes and a big cross-compliance issue for farmers and sheep traceability. It begins to undermine the fundamentals of traceability in sheep farming before even bringing in the readers.
The existing system started after the outbreak of foot and mouth disease and was refined because it was not working as it started. It was partly a trial. It was refined to a batch system in which the farmer tags on exit and there is a paper trail which most farmers can complete accurately and get by the cross-compliance levels. A farmer must be almost 100% right to pass the single farm inspection.
I asked the man in charge of this issue in Brussels about cross-compliance. If a farmer goes to the mart and only 95% of the tags on his sheep are read, then the dispatch docket will be 100% wrong. Another way to put it is that it can be as low 5% inaccurate. In fact, the readers can be as much as 45% inaccurate.
There is a major issue of credibility for everyone involved, namely, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, sheep farmers and the industry in general. We cannot allow a system that might undermine our credibility in export markets to come into operation. Other countries can do what they like. As Mr. Walshe stated, if something is wrong then we must highlight that fact. I reiterate that 16 million lambs are imported from New Zealand and not one of them is tagged. It is a case of double standards. The cost per sheep will be €2.50. At present, sheep are worth approximately €75 each. As Mr. Walshe stated, it is equivalent to spending €30 to tag a bovine.
There has been a positive development in sheep trade this year. In the past two months, almost 50,000 sheep were exported live. For the first time in ten years, sheep farmers are considering the trade in something of a positive light. Electronic tagging will kill that positive attitude. Those who purchase sheep at market will be obliged to bring them home, put electronic tags on them and have these read. People are making some money from the live export of sheep at present, but it would not be sufficient to cover the costs involved.
I met the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel, who is soon to leave office but who understands the practical difficulties involved. A complication has arisen in that the EU Commissioner for Health has responsibility for this matter. However, Commissioner Fischer Boel told me that Ireland, Scotland and Wales will have major problems with the system due to the extensive nature of sheep production in each of the three jurisdictions. She also informed me that the solution for Ireland would be to seek a derogation and indicated that there are difficulties with the system.
The EU has stated that the problems can be ironed out as we proceed. However, the system cannot be made perfect because the technology relating to it is flawed. If the technology comes up to spec in two or three years' time, we should reconsider the position. We are in a recession and we must be extremely careful. The cost-benefit analysis carried out by the EU indicates that farmers will pay 98% of the costs involved. No one has shown me how this will benefit anyone. There is no benefit. A farmer who currently spends 30 cent per sheep in respect of tagging, would be obliged to pay €2.50 per sheep under this proposed new system.
Many marts might be obliged to stop selling sheep because the equipment required to read the new tags costs €15,000. A large number of such marts, which are vital in the context of competition, are just about surviving at present.
The Minister has consistently stated that a voluntary system is required. I encourage members to support our stance in respect of this matter. As far as I am concerned, this is not over. New information is coming to light all the time. I understand the matter may be referred back to the European Parliament in the new year. We must be careful, particularly in view of the fact that our sheep industry has been halved in recent years. I hesitate to use the term "green shoots". However, such shoots are beginning to appear. This system, which is similar to the weedkiller Roundup, will kill them.