Relevant Matter
Public policy or programme
Public Policy Area
Agriculture
Period
1 May, 2018 to 31 Aug, 2018
Specific Details
Compulsory Electronic Identification of Sheep (EID)
Intended results
That it should not be necessary to extend EID to sheep that go from the farm of origin directly to slaughter. This is provided for in the EU regulation (EC) No 21/2004 under Article 4(3).
That the date for the introduction of EID be deferred from October 2018 as this timing is unsuitable for the lamb trade and does not provide an adequate time frame to get the necessary arrangements in place and allow farmers use existing tag supplies
With the Central Points of Recording (CPRs), the Department must guarantee that factories and marts will provide farmers selling sheep with a 100% accurate printout of their sheep numbers and tag readings which will be fully compliment with the DAFM cross compliance requirements for sheep ID.
To demonstrate that there is considerable concern over the accuracy of EID readings and that the Department of Agriculture will increase the necessary cross compliance tolerances and reduce penalties on sheep EID, so as to ensure there are no disadvantages or extra penalties for farmers under EID.
That the market for sheep tags be better regulated and the quality of sheep tags be improved by the Department.
That the Minister ensures that the meat factories abolish the non-statutory scrapie and Specified Risk Material (SRM) charges imposed on sheep farmers at the factories.
That an additional targeted environmental measure for the sheep sector under the Rural Development Programme (RDP), which would provide a payment worth €5 per ewe, financed from the underspend of €5m in the Sheep Welfare Scheme and an additional €5m of national funding be introduced.
In view of the fact that the benefits of EID will predominantly go to meat factories, marts, Department and tag manufactures as opposed to farmers, that the Department of Agriculture provides farmers with a €1 per head/tag subvention on the cost of EID tags.
Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity
Joe Healy IFA President, Sean Dennehy IFA Sheep Chair
Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?)
No
Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign?
No
Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client?
No
Lobbying activity
The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.
Designated public officials lobbied
The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them.
As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.
Michael Creed
Minister (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)
Jackie Cahill
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Marcella Corcoran Kennedy
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Martin Kenny
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Pat Deering
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Charlie McConalogue
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Willie Penrose
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Thomas Pringle
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)
Paul Daly
Senator (Seanad)
Tim Lombard
Councillor (Cork County Council)
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
Senator (Seanad)
Michelle Mulherin
TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)