Mr. Eddie Punch:

The data protection issue needs to be looked at by the Data Protection Commissioner. As I said, some people are not members of Bord Bia schemes so why should their information not be protected? It has been custom and practice that quality assurance inspectors have had access to this information from veterinary practices but it is timely, when looking at a new Bill, to question whether that is, in fact, compatible with data protection regulations. Aside from that, when creating a new database we should question whether it can be used for purposes for which it was not originally intended. It was mentioned with regard to flagging herds for inspections. There is a whole area here where it has been assumed the Department has power to use and take advantage of data and information that have been collected. I am not sure it would stand up to scrutiny in other sectors. I might be wrong but, on the other hand, if we are talking about a new Bill, we should have a bit of clarity around this. Farmers at some levels are concerned about access to product. There is some awareness of it with fertiliser but there are equally a lot of farmers who are not aware that they are expected to have the information about what fertiliser stocks they have on hand on 1 January, or about the requirement to tell the Department what they have left over at the end of this year. There is a job to be done there in informing people.