The Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) is currently inviting tenders for a service to handle, process, and verify certain pig movement notifications.

Around 1.5 million pigs are currently kept in Ireland on some 1,250 registered holdings, according to DAFM.

Of those holdings, about 270 are classified as commercial units.

Anyone who wants to keep pigs must, before possessing any of the animals, submit an application for a pig herd number from DAFM.

Successful applicants are then assigned a unique herd number which is registered and activated on the department’s systems.

DAFM

By law, pig keepers are required to notify the department, through an outsourced service provider, of all movements of pigs both onto and off their holdings.

This currently involves a dual notification process where the keeper of the herd from which the pigs are moving must give advance notice of the intention to move a batch of pigs.

The receiving keeper must also notify the same details of the movements onto their holding within 24 hours of the pigs being received there.

The department noted that the movement is only recorded when notifications are received from both parties involved in the move.

The only exception to this requirement is where pigs move from a holding directly to a DAFM-approved slaughter plant.

In these cases, data in relation to pigs is recorded directly onto the department's system at the slaughter plant.

Such movements do not require separate keeper notification of the intent to move pigs to such locations. Therefore, these movements are excluded from this tender process.

Movements

Last year, there were just over 8,200 reconciled pig movements recorded to and from premises other than DAFM-approved slaughter plants.

The notifications were made by pig herd keepers, pig dealers, agents, and other keepers and processors in relation to pigs moving from farm-to-farm, farm to abattoir, farm to export, and a small number from farm to shows.

DAFM said it intends to procure a service to handle, process, verify, and record these pig movements.

The department said that it is currently intended that the service must be fully operable from March 1, 2026.

The estimated value of the 36-month contract is €150,000, excluding VAT.

The closing date for the submission of tenders is 1:00p.m on November 11, 2025.