The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has issued 97 compliance notices restricting herds to date, this year, due to serious tagging and registration (IDR) breaches.
The department said that 28 of these restrictions were lifted after the farmers carried out the “necessary corrective action”.
As part of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), breaches of IDR rules are being managed in a new way from 2023 onwards by the department.
Tagging
Cross compliance or conditionality penalties can no longer be applied to a farmer’s direct payments for breaching these requirements.
In the event that corrective action is not taken by a farmer, a fixed payment notice (FPN) will be issued. The FPN will be applied at a flat rate of €250.
Failure to pay within 28 days may result in a court appearance and an increased risk of further inspection.
A DAFM spokesperson told Agriland that “no fixed payment notices have been issued or prosecution initiated in relation to IDR non-compliances year-to-date”.
“This enforcement system is designed to deliver the highest level of compliance with traceability requirements and affords inspected herds every opportunity to comply with the rules on identification and registration before incurring a financial penalty,” the spokesperson added.
Cross compliance
Last year, department officials carried out 5,186 cross compliance inspections, including IDR of animals and full cross compliance.
“In relation to penalties imposed for identification and registration of animals in 2022, there were 987 cases of penalties applied to farmers,” the DAFM spokesperson said.
These IDR breaches consisted of 764 cattle herds, 218 in respect of sheep and goats and five pig herds.
“The payment of over €1.7 billion to farmers is conditional on their checks being carried out correctly,” the spokesperson said.