Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
787. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Question No. 714 of 25 November 2025, if his Department has examined an organisations genomic services terms and conditions (October 2025) specifically Clauses 6.1 to 6.4 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [71877/25]
View answer789. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the designated third parties operating performance recording and genetic evaluation in Ireland for organisations (details supplied) provide breeders and breed societies with the ability, as required under Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1012 and Recitals (1), (2) and (10), to autonomously define the objectives and structure of their breeding programmes; if the current reliance on a single centrally-designed terminal index and replacement index, with fixed trait weightings applied uniformly across all breeds, restricts the ability of individual breeds to pursue diverse breeding goals and safeguard hereditary characteristics essential for the preservation of breed identity and genetic diversity; particularly where CAP-funded schemes financially reward the use of animals ranked on these national Herdplus/Lambplus indices, thereby influencing breeding and market decisions toward uniform trait priorities; and, if so, the mechanisms which exist to support breed-specific customisation of breeding objectives and trait emphasis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [71879/25]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 787 and 789 together.
A breed society may be recognised by my Department in accordance with Article 4 of Regulation 2016/1012. A breeding programme may be approved by my Department in accordance with Article 8 of the Regulations. It is a matter for a breed society to decide on their own breeding objectives and to carry out their own performance testing and genetic evaluations or to designate these activities to a third party in accordance with Article 27 of the Regulations.
The EU Code of Conduct on Agricultural Data Sharing by Contractual Agreement is a voluntary code which companies can make a decision to sign up to. My Department has no role in relation to this EU Code of Conduct nor to evaluating if any organisation’s term and conditions are compatible with it. These organisations have their own legal responsibility to comply with data protection law in relation to all data they process.
With regard to CAP funded schemes, all CAP schemes were subject to public and stakeholder consultation prior to their introduction and it is in this context that alternative schemes or measures should be proposed and scrutinised.
