Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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1413. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide the peer-reviewed scientific evidence used to justify the inclusion of an organisation (details supplied) in the sheep improvement scheme under the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027; and whether any of this evidence has since been amended, retracted, or contradicted by subsequent findings. [57898/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) supports sheep farmers undertaking targeted actions, such as lameness, parasite control and mineral supplementation, that improve the health and welfare of their flocks. It will operate until 2027 with an indicative annual budget of €20m and contributes to improved ovine welfare through a menu of specified management practices, two of which must be carried out by participants each year for the duration of scheme to qualify for payment.

It was a policy decision to include a genotyped ram action which must be completed at least once in the first three years of the scheme. All scheme participants are required to purchase and use an eligible ram within the scheme year(s) that they have selected for this action at application stage.

The SIS, including genotying, was approved by the European Commission as part of the CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) which justified measures to improve animal health and welfare standards, including through the targeted application of genomic technologies, in the sheep sector. The CSP is published on my Department’s website - www.gov.ie/CAP - and the scheme is being implemented in accordance with Commission approval.