Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 December 2021
227. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the allocation to offset the additional cost to farmers resulting from mandatory EID tagging of cattle is intended to fully or partially offset the cost for those farmers who do not reach the schemes cap; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59292/21]
View answerA financial support package of €4.25 million has been secured to offset the additional cost on farmers in the move to mandatory electronic identification of cattle from January 2022 onwards. The intention is that the scheme will operate over three years (2022 to 2024 inclusive) with the first payments scheduled to take place in quarter four in 2022, expected to be in the region of €2.25 million.
Payments will be calculated on the number of new EID tag sets purchased from 1st January 2022 at a rate of €1 per new EID tag set. There is a maximum payment of €100 per farmer over the life of the scheme and no application process will be required. The scheme is proportionally weighted in favour of smaller producers. For example, a farmer who purchases 30 new EID tags sets each year will be eligible for a payment of €30 in each of the three years of the scheme.
In this example, the scheme will offset 100% of the additional cost of EID tags for three years. For herds who order in excess of 100 tags per year, the scheme will offset 100% of the cost of EID tag for the first 100 tags purchased.
Farmers can only order annually the number of new tag sets required commensurate to the number of breeding females in the herd.
