The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is planning to supply animal welfare information to Bord Bia as part of a new data sharing agreement.
The purpose of the agreement is to identify herds or flocks participating in the Bord Bia Sustainability and Quality Assurance (QA) Scheme where a legal notice has been issued under Section 42 of the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013.
When such information is received by Bord Bia, it will result in an audit of the farm in question to identify any non-conformance issues with QA schemes.
No immediate withdrawal or suspension of scheme membership will occur based solely on the information received from DAFM that a legal notice was issued, the proposed agreement states.
According to DAFM, this activity is important to protect the reputation of the Bord Bia schemes and the Irish food and agriculture industries
In the event that non-conformances are found, the relevant scheme rules will be applied, including the possibility of sanctions up to suspension or withdrawal of certification.
Where Bord Bia finds full compliance with the scheme, no further action will be taken.
No results from the audit will be shared with DAFM under this arrangement.
DAFM
The proposed data sharing agreement is available for public consultation until November 9, 2023.
Only submissions made by email will be accepted; the relevant email address is available on DAFM’s website.
All submissions must include the full data sharing agreement name ‘BBDAFM 022_230919 Animal Welfare Data’ in the subject line of the email.
Submissions made once the public consultation period has ended will not be accepted.