Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 November 2013
186. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the timeframe for his Department to change to a web-based-only animal registration and grant application; the steps he is taking to make his Department's web page more user-friendly and to have the ability to include all the relevant animal information that may be required; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47440/13]
View answerOverall, my Department’s IT systems and the use of these systems, including web based interaction with its customers and clients, is at the very high end by any standard. IT offers a wide range of modern, online and mobile services to our customers and the online uptake of these services over the internet is steadily increasing.
The Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) System that the Deputy refers to is developed using modern web-based technology and it holds data in relation to cattle, sheep, pigs and horses. The information held on AIM is of critical importance in providing consumer, public health and trade assurances in relation to our farming, food and meat processing industries.
The AIM system is fully internet compliant and it is used online by animal tag supply companies, meat export factories, livestock marts, export assembly centres and local authority abattoirs. The system also interacts with Farm Management packages and with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF). AIM is also used directly online by Farmers and their authorised Agents and in the first 9 months of 2013 there were 1,951,810 calf registrations on AIM of which 855,756 (43.8% of the total) were carried out online.
My Department also operates the Animal Health Computer System (AHCS), which is fully internet compliant and a major feature of this system is that Private Veterinary Practitioners, who carry out testing under the disease eradication schemes, are able to access and update the system over the internet. Over 15 million individual animal tests are recorded on AHCS annually and combined with the AIM system, is critical in the operation of animal identification, movement, testing and disease control programmes. AIM and AHCS combined allow my Department to trace animal movements in the event of a disease outbreak and the data is also used to check compliance with eligibility criteria for various schemes that my Department administers.
In relation to the farm schemes operated by my Department, the online submission of Single Farm Payment (SFP) applications annually has been a significant feature of my Department’s online services over the past number of years and this has proven to be very popular. SFP online applications increased by a further 12.7% in 2013 and a total of 73,340 claims were filed online by the closing date of 15 May 2013. This represents 56% of all SFP applicants for this year.
I introduced a new online feature in 2012 with regard to on-line mapping whereby relevant maps can now be edited and submitted on-line with the SFP application. This is further evidence of my ongoing commitment to maximise the use of technology for the benefit of farmers. The uptake in SPS online map edits increased by 18% in 2013, with 13,959 applicants digitising map changes directly online.
This week my Department launched an online facility to enable Forestry premium recipients who have registered for online services, to apply for their 2014 forestry premium through the www.agfood.ie portal. The development of the online Forestry premium application service, initiated originally in 2012, also allows Forestry clients to view some of their payment history and maps of their forest plantations and ultimately to receive their payments earlier then they would have using the old paper based system.
In February of this year, I also announced a new online service for 2013 Nitrates Derogation applications and plans which can be submitted on-line by farmers and their agents registered with www.agfood.ie. This development continued my Department’s policy of using technology to simplify procedures for farmers and also reduce the potential for application errors.
In order to broaden the communication channels and to provide timely information to farmers using modern communication technologies, I introduced a mobile phone text messaging system recently to relay relevant information such as updates on scheme payments, deadlines, promoting new services and disease outbreak alerts. My Department used this text messaging facility in the last few weeks to notify farmers of their interim Nitrogen and Phosphorus statement covering cattle numbers held on the farm for the 9 month period January to September 2013. Text messages were issued to those farmers whose cattle numbers would indicate that they may be approaching or exceeding the limits set down in the Nitrates regulations. My Department has issued over 600,000 such information text messages directly to Farmers on their mobile phones in the last 12 months.
I also launched a mobile website (http://m.agriculture.gov.ie) which provides better mobile access to the more popular areas of the main website. The service has been designed to work better across a range of modern mobile devices and it will automatically link into the main website when greater detail is required.
This continuing increase in online uptake and my commitment to the rolling out of new online and mobile services underlines my dedication to improving the way we provide services to farmers.
