Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The European Commission has made no proposal on electronic identification of cattle at this stage. My Department is represented on a working group set up by the European Commission to discuss developments on bovine identification. I understand that plans are being formulated for the introduction in 2011 of a regulation for the implementation of an electronic identification system for bovines on a voluntary basis.

In 2009, the European Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumers published a study on the introduction of electronic identification to identify bovine animals within the European Union. The report was prepared by consultants on behalf of the European Commission. A consultant visited Ireland, met officials from my Department and had discussions with the farm organisations as part of the consultation process in drafting the report.

The report established that electronic identification has the potential to reduce reading time, errors and administrative burden. At farm level, the use of electronic identification has definite advantages for management purposes where automated systems are used to record and utilise production records such as milk yield, feed consumption, fertility and weight gain. Benefits of electronic identification accrue for official controls in reduced labour costs, due to automatic reading.

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