Minister Must Hold Derogation on Eid and Avoid Imposing Extra Costs on Farmers – IFA

IFA President Joe Healy said sheep farmers are strongly opposed to compulsory EID for lambs and the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed must insist that EID is not part of the new €10 per ewe sheep scheme, as well as ensuring that the existing derogation is maintained for sheep farmers.

Joe Healy said proposals from factories and others for the compulsory EID of lambs going direct to slaughter is an unnecessary cost imposed directly and only on farmers while returning no benefits to them. He said this has been received very negatively at farm level.

Joe Healy said IFA has written to Minister Creed spelling out clearly the IFA opposition to compulsory EID and how it would damage the new €10 per ewe scheme.

IFA National Sheep Chairman John Lynskey said compulsory EID of lambs must be strongly resisted as full EID is impractical, unnecessary and extremely cost prohibitive in what is a severely low-income sector, both lowland and hill.

John Lynskey said, “The €10/ewe scheme for sheep farmers is critical for the entire sheep sector and has been positively received. However, any erosion of this money from the pockets of sheep farmers either directly or indirectly with issues such as EID will have a very negative impact on how the 34,000 sheep farmers view the scheme and severely diminish its benefits to the sector”.

Concluding, he said the Minister for Agriculture must prevent compulsory EID of lambs by maintaining our existing derogation in order to protect sheep farmers from the imposition of an unnecessary and prohibitive cost burden.