The compulsory electronic tagging of sheep should not be introduced this year as it would only add confusion, a farm leader claimed at the weekend.
Electronic tagging of sheep became mandatory EU-wide on January 1st last but will not be introduced here until sometime in the first half of the year, Mervyn Sunderland of the Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers Association said.
“This must now be put off until 2011 if it is not scrapped altogether. Any effort to bring in electronic tagging cannot succeed without an intensive campaign to familiarise farmers with it first,” he said.
The Government is seeking a derogation to the new law which would mean only animals retained for breeding and live export would have to be tagged.
This would reduce tagging to 20 per cent of the national flock.
The farming organisations oppose electronic tagging claiming the current identification system is sufficient and electronic tagging would cost at least €50 million to implement.