Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the genotyping, nobody can argue against what the Department is doing. The use of technology makes much sense. Must the data be provided for all of the calves even though 1.5 in ten will be sampled?

The Minister stated he hoped to reach 600,000 calves; presumably, he meant 15% of them. There are many more calves than that in the country. There was a suckler cow welfare scheme. It did not involve this genotyping, but it was improving the quality of animals quite considerably by better husbandry and better practices, without bothering about the DNA element. Will there be any incentive for the other half of the country, which comprise the smaller farmers, to continue to improve husbandry? It was well accepted that the suckler cow welfare scheme, while not the deluxe scheme that those involved in genomics will be doing, without changing the DNA, was improving the quality of calf produced in the market and was informing farmers. I wonder will there be an equal measure for the non-genomic farmers, who in the main are the smaller operators who produce half of the calves of the country, to encourage them to improve the way they farm and to support a vulnerable sector, that is, the suckler cow sector, which is in decline.