Minister Must Hold Derogation on Eid & Avoid Imposing Extra Costs on Farmers
IFA National Sheep Committee Chairman John Lynskey said, in restating IFA’s opposition to compulsory EID for lambs, the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed must hold the derogation that currently exists for sheep farmers.
He 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. This has been received very negatively at farm level.
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.
The IFA Chairman 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.
