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

I thank the witnesses for attending. As presented, this is the greatest no-brainer ever. When somebody presents me with a no-brainer, however, I always ask if there is something I do not understand. I take it the witnesses are not here to present on something that was going to happen in any event and about which there was no need to come before us to discuss. I also take it that contrary arguments have been put forward by someone somewhere because otherwise I would have expected the Minister to introduce this and we would not be here. Are those issues relating to price, difficulty applying the tags or something else?

I was hoping the last page would include disadvantages or arguments against. Unfortunately, we do not have the arguments against. I presume the witnesses are not here because it is such a no-brainer that it will happen anyway.

Is applying these tags a similar operation to putting on conventional tags? If all the data are on the tag and not written down and one loses the tag, does one lose the data? I presume the number of lost tags would be proportionate to the number of lost tags we get at the moment and that the physical shape of the tag is fairly similar. I am not in any way taking away from all the good arguments the witnesses put forward about easy reading, fatalities and safety but I wish to ask about the statement that there would be no need for passports. My understanding is that a printout from the AIM system gives the herd number of the animal and when it moves to another herd, it immediately makes this clear. Presumably, the new tag will only give the tag number of the animal, so one would still have to get the herd number of the seller and the purchaser and key it in. Is that correct? I can understand that this system records that an animal is whatever it is but how exactly does one record, on the central computer system, that it has a changed from the herd number relating to farmer No. 1 to that of the purchaser, whether that be a farmer, a dealer or whoever? Is this information inputted manually?

If the Minister said this would be compulsory for all new calves on 1 January 2017 and for all farm movements after that, would it be possible to introduce the tags on a voluntary basis immediately? I ask that for two reasons. Most people resist change, no matter what it is or how beneficial it might be. Many people still do things in the old-fashioned way when there are more convenient ways of doing them. When we got rid of the manual telephones, many people thought they would never get used to the push-button varieties but two days after getting them, they decided they would never go back. Change requires advocates and the best advocate is the person on the ground showing the neighbour how to do it.

What would the witnesses think of a voluntary period of, say, a year, to be followed by a mandatory period? We know from the suckler herd statistics that 48% of suckler herds have ten cows or less - virtually half the herds in the country, so handreaders are no big advantage. There is no differentiation between the east or the west coast in this regard, so I am not just making a west coast point. Not all the small herds are between Donegal and Kerry; there are a lot of small farms all around the country. For example, some 45% of herds in Kilkenny are of ten cows or fewer. For smaller farmers, the present system is not quite as cumbersome because of the number of cattle they sell but the big guys will obviously move fast. I am a great believer in the dual system as it is like pushing the sheep into the pen.

The hill farmer gathers the sheep on the mountain and brings them down to the pen. If he does it in a hurry and tells the dogs to bark, the sheep will run off and it will take another week to gather them. If something is done nice and gently and people are eased into a new situation then, given time, and if there are advocates among their neighbours who will show them how to do something, it is much more likely that there will be buy-in. I presume that issues have been raised about this, either by farming organisations or individuals but I think in the longer term it is a no-brainer. I am a great believer in technology but I also see how resistant people are to using even very basic technology because they feel uncomfortable with it.

I have one more question as there are representatives from the marts here. I understand the intention is that the star rating of animals will be recorded on the mart boards. I have seen some publicity about this and it seems to me to be a good idea. How quickly will this happen and what will the cost be for the marts? Has the Minister given any assistance to upgrade the boards, in particular to the smaller marts? All of the old boards will have to be thrown out and new boards and new systems will be needed to do this. Will the witnesses give us some indication of the cost of upgrading? Presumably with this system, everything from the tag can be read on the board.