Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 43:

In page 55, to delete lines 35 to 49 and substitute the following:62.—(1) Without prejudice to the Criminal Evidence Act 1992, a copy of a record which has endorsed on it a certificate purporting to be signed by a person (authorised by the Minister in that behalf) stating that the copy is a true copy of the record may, without proof of signature (including an electronic signature) of that person, be produced in every court and in all legal proceedings and is evidence, unless the contrary is shown, of the record.

(2) A copy of an animal health and welfare notice, a fixed payment notice, a direction or requirement in writing of an authorised officer or a licence, permit, approval or authorisation under animal health and welfare regulations shall be authenticated by the signature of the person issuing it. An electronic signature (within the meaning of section 2 of the Electronic Commerce Act 2000) may be used for such authentication.”.

I propose to insert a new version of this section to clarify the use of electronic documents. This is an important piece of future-proofing. With complex systems involving animal tracing, keeping paper copies of everything is costly and inefficient. Some systems may move towards keeping electronic records only of some data. This will reduce storage costs and should improve accessibility to records. Given what we are planning to do in the context of the microchipping of dogs and horses and the management of horse passports and all of the systems this will involve which will require a software programme, it is evident that we should move away from paper records, if possible.

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