Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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581. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will consider introducing a compensation scheme for farmers who have been affected by livestock thefts, especially as farmers cannot secure insurance to cover such an eventuality. [9216/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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While it is not possible to introduce a compensation scheme for all unforeseen events, I urge farmers to familiarise themselves with all risk management issues such as injury, theft, price volatility, weather related disasters and animal diseases. I also encourage farmers to take the appropriate steps and employ risk management techniques where possible. The theft of any property, including cattle, is a criminal offence and should be reported to the Garda Síochána which is the appropriate authority to investigate and pursue such criminality. Officers of my Department assist the Gardaí with their investigations into such reported events. There is also close liaison with the relevant authorities in Northern Ireland such that the issue of stolen animals is being addressed on an all-island basis.

Stolen cattle cannot be traded legally in the State as all bovines must bear official ear tags, be properly registered and be associated with the herd of the individual moving or selling the animal on the Department’s Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) database. When cattle are reported as stolen to my Department, they are marked on the AIM database as being stolen on foot of a Garda report. If these animals are presented anywhere in the State for sale, slaughter or export they are checked against the database and will be rejected at these outlets and an investigation initiated.