Minister Creed Must Ensure Collection of Fallen Animals from Farms Is Not Disrupted

IFA Animal Health Chairman, Pat Farrell said the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed cannot allow a situation to arise where fallen animals are not being collected from farms.

He said IFA has highlighted the weaknesses with the current fallen animal collection service to the Department of Agriculture for a number of years.

“The Department of Agriculture is legislatively bound to ensure an efficient and competitive infrastructure is available to all farmers.  The current infrastructure, through the licensed knackeries, is failing to deliver this service.”

Since 2013, farmers have been exposed to continuous and unacceptable price increases and in some cases, knackeries refusing to collect certain animals.

He said the Department of Agriculture must provide all farmers with a guaranteed collection service, significantly below the exorbitant and unacceptable fees currently charged by some knackeries. These fees have increased again in the past number of weeks.

Pat Farrell said the Department of Agriculture must move as a matter of urgency to reduce the costs for farmers and ensure no fallen animals are left on farms.