Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not propose to go back to the drawing board or to change the proposal in any considerable detail. I will address the Deputy's issue of a factory contribution. We can take costs out, such as administration from the farmer, which is a cost and labour requirement. If one brings in a batch of lambs, one reads it one's self, one by one, transcribes it and then puts it into a dispatch document. That cost is all gone now. There is a cost gone at the factory because the lambs will walk up the chute and be read with an electronic wand. Taking out all those costs will deliver a better return to the primary producer. More importantly, we should reflect on the cost of not doing it because our traceability system for sheepmeat is not fit for purpose. EID is the best available technology. I have never hidden from the fact that a cost is associated with it but we need to reflect on the costs and opportunities forgone by not having it. I can clearly state that, in the context of market access, for the US, Japan and other markets, not having this form of traceability is a critical issue. If there was an incident where we failed to recall, not only would it be an issue for our sheepmeat sector, but it would reflect poorly on our entire meat export industry. We have an effective traceability system for bovines but we do not have it for sheep. We should reflect on that calmly. Having met with them, I do not think any farm organisation is opposed to the principle of EID. I accept the point that it is about the detail of it. In any scheme such as this, we need to make a decision about introducing it and that decision has now been made for 1 October. There are many issues to be worked through relating to the existing stock of tags, etc. I hope we can resolve that. This is the right thing to do. I do not know quite whether Deputy McConalogue is in favour of EID or not but, in the interests of the sheep industry, this is the right thing to do. There is a cost but there are also costs associated with not doing it.

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