Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to any welfare issues surrounding the use of EID tagging on sheep; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23344/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am aware that concerns have been raised with regard to welfare issues and sheep EID tagging and that the matter has been discussed by my officials with a number of farming organisations. I addressed this issue in a statement recently concerning EID sheep electronic tagging (EID) arrangements.

The Deputy should be aware that EID has been a mandatory EU requirement for some years now. There does not appear to be a problem, in general, with sore and infected ears post tagging across the Union as long as appropriate practices are observed. These includes correct placement of the tag in the ear, tagging at the correct time of year in order to avoid fly strike and also the disinfection of equipment and the sheep's ear prior to tagging each animal. These guidelines are outlined in a booklet that I am forwarding to each flockowners in the coming weeks.

My Department has and will take a pragmatic approach to applying the European rules in these cases. If a farmer has sheep with infected ears post tagging then he can seek veterinary advice from his own practitioner. If the advice is to remove the tag(s) then the sheep farmer should record the event in his/her farm flock register and retain the removed tags. The affected sheep should be re-identified as soon as possible after the ears have healed - correlating the new tag number to the removed tag number. If the farmer follows this procedure there should be no issues on cross-compliance for animals that have had their tags removed on animal welfare grounds with veterinary advice.

I can assure the Deputy that my officials will work with farmers in finding solutions to any legitimate problems that may arise.