Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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1224. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether the animal identification and movement, AIM, system should not penalise farmers, should not be open to third parties and should not be restricted by his Department; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that other EU countries prohibit third parties from accessing all prior movement data; and his further views on AIM data being used by factories and retailers to penalise farmers based on the number of movements of their livestock. [36684/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The animal identification and movement system (AIM) is not used to penalise farmers.

The AIM data provided to the factories includes registration and movement history data for an animal which is already recorded on the animal passport that accompanies the animal to the factory.  AIM provides the data in electronic format to assist factories in marketing Irish beef and beef products and to provide reassurance to consumers of Irish beef and beef products.

The Quality Payment Scheme (QPS) is an agreement between Meat Industry Ireland (MII) and the IFA on the payment arrangements for cattle that meet certain carcase confirmation and fat score criteria. The aim of the scheme is to encourage production of cattle with better conformation and fat scores through the rewarding of bonus payments to farmers.

In addition to the QPS, a Quality Assured bonus, operated by meat processors, is paid on certain animals that fulfil a number of criteria, one of which is the total number of farm residencies in the animals lifetime. It is important to note all qualifying criteria, including the number of farm residencies of an animal, are entirely matters outside the remit of my Department.

During the discussions with the farming organisations and MII it was agreed that the AIM system would provide the number of farm residences for each bovine entering the factory in order to assist identifying if the animal qualifies for the additional premium payment.