Vol. 550 No. 4
258 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the way in which tag loss, outside the farmers control, is accommodated or taken account of in applying the new EU penalty regime for the direct premium payment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9241/02]
Identification of animals is critical to traceability which in turn is a critical requirement for presence in the market. Proper identification is a mandatory requirement for premia eligibility. In Ireland, all animals must be identified by two plastic tags, one in each ear. This is to allow time for replacement if one tag is lost. Statistics from 2001 show that the level of request for single replacement tags is less than 4% and the level of request for pairs of tags is less than 1.5%. This shows a relatively low level of loss which is contrary to recent suggestions that the level of loss is between 5% and 7%.
Under the premium schemes an animal will be paid premium if there is one tag in place when the animal is checked. Therefore while the tag loss is outside farmers' control it is important that producers check their cattle regularly and if a missing tag is detected a replacement tag should be ordered. Of course this is not alone to ensure premium payment but to guarantee the traceability of all animals on the holding.
If both tags are missing at a scheme check then the animal in question will be rejected from the claim and the premium on other eligible animals will be reduced proportionally. The proportional reduction will depend on the overall number of non-compliant animals against the overall number of eligible animals under the special beef, suckler cow and slaughter premium schemes.
