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

I have always had an issue with science. I remember one occasion when I was in a certain Department and had to listen to the same things being said about science. I did not realise that the particular official present was a very fast driver and my comment was not meant to be a dig at him. However, I said that if I decided to apply pure science to a human issue such as road safety then the simple scientific fact is that if one limited the ability of a car to travel no more than 5 mph then there would be virtually no car accidents. There is a human factor and it was unacceptable to a great mass of human beings that we would limit every vehicle in the country to just 5 mph.

I am all for science as I studied it at university. Policy is the art of trying to marry science with human elements. Is the federation concerned that so many farmers have indicated they will remain outside of the scheme? Every calf will be included in the scheme but it seems only a minority of herds will be included. Would a slightly less percentage be better? Would four fifths of the female calves, in a higher number of herds, not generate the same amount of genotyping in total? My proposal would bring more people into the scheme and ensure that more areas of the country are covered by the technology. It seems to me that there will be large swathes of the country where very few farmers will participate in the scheme.