Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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956. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding the production of cattle tags here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46833/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The contract referred to by the Deputy was awarded on foot of a public procurement competition for the provision of bovine animal identification tags and birth registration documents held in 2012. The Request for Tenders (RFT) facilitated a range of business operators to participate in this competition by providing for entities to join together in a consortium to satisfy the requirements of the RFT.

The RFT asked applicants to demonstrate that they had an overall turnover of a minimum of €3 million for each of the last three preceding years. The selection of the turnover figure, which was not restricted to the sale of cattle tags, was influenced by the obligation on the Department to ensure that the successful contractor would have the financial standing to undertake all of the deliverables set down in the contract for the duration of this significant contract including, inter alia, provision of conventional, electronic and tissue tags, processing tag orders, supplying at least 2 million tag sets, replacement tags and registration forms and operating a helpdesk.

I should emphasise that the implementation of an effective and reputable identification system plays a key role in underpinning beef and dairy exports in a competitive marketplace.