Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's answer. I think we are in full agreement on the huge benefits of genotyping our national herd. The accurate information that will be generated will have huge benefits for us. However, with respect, I want to emphasise that this is urgent and we need to get it moving as quickly as possible. It is estimated that Exchequer funding of €40 million to €45 million will be required to genotype the adult herd, alongside an ongoing expense each year on genotyping newborn calves. To me, it is too good an opportunity to let it pass us by. I fully accept that the Minister has no intention of allowing that to happen. I urge him, with all haste, to get this up and going. As I said in my initial statement, it is going to be a physical job to genotype the adult herd. According to the ICBF estimate, even if we started on 1 March we would only get 50% of the adult herd done this year. In order to get this up and running and to gain the benefits from it, we need to commit to starting as quickly as possible. I think we will get huge buy-in from farmers for the scheme. As I said, it ticks all the boxes. It will help us to meet our climate change targets and it will also deliver economic benefits to the farmer. I have always clearly stated that in my view, proper use of technology and the modern advances that are there can actually benefit us environmentally and economically at farm level. That is something that I have very strongly advocated for. This is an ideal vehicle to achieve that. The money that we spend on a 10% reduction in our emissions will be a small price to pay for that significant reduction.

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