Agriculture Committee to meet next week to discuss concerns around electronic tagging of sheep

Agriculture Committee Chair, Pat Deering TD said today, “Under recently announced new rules, all sheep sold from October 1, 2018 onwards will have to be identified electronically. A once-off support measure of up to €50 per keeper will be made on the first purchase of EID tags. Next week, the Agriculture Committee will engage directly with Officials from the Department of Agriculture, as well as with representatives from Meat Industry Ireland (MII) to discuss the implications of this significant change to the sheep tagging process.”

“The Committee will be focusing on the concerns raised by farmers, including the additional time and labour implications the new system will involve. Sheep farmers have also voiced their dissatisfaction at a lack of meaningful consultation on EID up to now and many farmers are not satisfied that EID will mean further market access and an increase in the value value of sheep farmers’ produce. The Committee meeting will be a valuable opportunity to discuss electronic tagging and how we can ensure that it results in tangible benefits for Irish farmers, including greater access to new international markets.”

“In the second part of the meeting, we will meet Minister Creed to discuss expenditure in the Rural Development Programme Expenditure, with a focus on commitments given in six schemes. The Committee looks forward to engaging with Minister Creed on the RDP budget spend to date and how it reflects the delivery of commitments made by the Government to farmers, including data and indicators on this delivery.”

The full agenda for the meeting is as follows:

• Electronic identification of sheep
Officials from Dept. of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Representatives from Meat Industry Ireland (MII)

• Rural Development Programme Expenditure
Michael Creed, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The meeting will start at 3.30pm in Committee Room 1, Leinster House.

Committee proceedings can be viewed live here