Cattle tagging system under fire
TD Seymour Crawford, the party’s deputy spokesman on agriculture, said statistics regarding new and replacement ear tags issued last year were “stark.” A total of 2.3 million new tag sets were issued while 93,871 pairs and 271,514 single tags had to be replaced.
Mr Crawford said an implant system must be a real alternative to the costly and totally unsatisfactory system being used.
In a Dáil reply, Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan said the bovine population is tagged with double plastic tags and this is reflected in the overall number of replacement tags requested.
“Requests for replacement tags undergo a rigorous validation procedure to ensure that tags are only issued where appropriate and I am satisfied that the tag distribution system operates in an efficient and secure manner,” she said.
