Mr. Michael Spellman:

I was going to make reference to that because the question was raised earlier. I attended all three demonstrations when they took place in 2014 and the people who attended were extremely impressed with what was shown. It was a practical, physical demonstration of how electronic identification would work in the mart context. There were people there from other farming organisations who were as impressed as we were with what this had to offer. We have been discussing it for more than two years. We attend meetings in Brussels and it has been on the agenda in Europe for some time. I have not yet heard anyone put forward a good argument as to why we should not go that route. That is the purpose of us coming in today.

Will the committee use whatever opportunity it gets to encourage the Minister to implement a full mandatory programme of bovine EID even if the programme must be voluntary for a short while? There is no point in going for a half measure on this issue because we will be more respected if we have a full programme and we will be the first country in Europe to come up with it, and why not? The AIM system is the envy of many other European countries.

They have nothing like it. Currently they are trying to develop a system of their own in Scotland but they are envious of what we have here. If that has been the way our system has been looked at, why not be out there in the front with a good, fully mandatory programme of bovine EID?