Mr. Michael Sheahan:

I am aware that Deputy Carthy in particular was not happy about things. We have made progress on all 11 recommendations but I accept that there are one or two on which we may have agreed to disagree. In general, however, progress has been good. On the traceability front, there is no point in pretending it will happen overnight. We have come a long way since we started around 2012 and a lot of progress has been made, but we are still a little bit away from where we are on the cattle front. Having said that, nothing stands still, even on the cattle front. By coincidence, while wearing a different hat today I was dealing with the electronic identification of cattle, with which some of the members will be very familiar. I was amused. We have a report from 1990, believe it or not, making a very compelling case for the electronic identification of cattle. Now, in 2022, we are finally at the point of having the electronic identification of cattle. Sometimes, even though there is a great idea and the case for it is made very strongly, it can take time to realise it. Since we live in a democracy, we have to bring stakeholders along with us. That is the reality of the world we live in. The position is somewhat the same on traceability and horses. There is a little way to go but we have come a long way. Many of the developments we talked about earlier, including the census and the electronic passports that were introduced for the first time last year, will lead to considerable progress in the next couple of years.