The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has outlined how farmers can appoint third party contacts to act on their behalf in personal matters with the department.
The issue was raised by women attending the Women in Agriculture Stakeholder Group (WASG) national roadshow in recent months.
The roadshow was delivered in response to the government’s National Women in Agriculture Action Plan and was designed to showcase the vital contribution of women in Irish farming.
Some women attending the meetings outlined their frustration at not being able to discuss matters about their family farms with the department as they were not on the herd number.
DAFM
A DAFM spokesperson told Agriland that the department is “fully committed to keeping all personal data submitted by its customers, fully safe and secure during administrative processes”.
“All necessary technical measures have been put in place to ensure the safety and security of the systems which hold this data, to ensure it is not disclosed to unauthorised persons as required under data protection legislation,” they stated.
The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by the EU in 2018 saw the designation of a herd number/registered farm partnership number as personal information.
“Therefore, by default DAFM can only discuss and disclose information relating to a herd number to the registered herd owner per DAFM’s corporate customer management system,” the spokesperson explained.
Third party contacts
The department said that third party contacts can be authorised to act on behalf of the herd owner/registered farm partnership members in relation to personal matters, including access to personal data arising from dealings with DAFM.
The department has an authorisation form, DAFM Auth 4, which will allow up to four other nominated contacts to act on behalf of DAFM clients for all department-related queries.
That form can be downloaded from the DAFM website and once completed it can be emailed or posted back to the department for processing.
The department said that it is important to ensure that the data provided is complete and accurate, otherwise this will delay the authorisation process.
The nominated contacts facility is also available online via a herdowner/registered farm partnership members’ Agfood.ie account.
The agreement between the farmer and the nominated contact(s) will remain in place until such time as either party notifies the department in writing that the agreement is terminated.