MANY cattle dealers are likely to be driven out of business by regulations currently being drafted by the Department of Agriculture.
A draft of the new regulations seen by The Irish Times shows that dealers will face registration and must undertake to obey Irish and EU regulations, keep records for at least three years and buy only healthy animals.
The draft regulations define a dealer as a person who buys and sells animals commercially either directly or indirectly, who has a regular turnover of these animals and who, within a maximum of 30 days of purchasing animals, resells them or relocates them to premises not within his ownership.
The draft regulations say he must deal only in animals that are identified and come from herds that are officially free of bovine TB, brucellosis and leukosis or slaughter animals meeting the relevant trading conditions.
The rules specify that the dealer will have to keep a record or data base and store information on the owner, origin, date of purchase, categories, number and identification of cattle and the herd number or origin.
He will also have to keep on record for three years the registration number of the transporter or the licence number of the lorry delivering or collecting cattle. He will have to keep the name and address of the purchaser and the destination of the animals and copies of route plans or the serial number of health certificates.
The regulations specify that a dealer who keeps animals must have trained staff and will be subject to regular veterinary inspection.
The dealers' premises will have to be registered and approved and must be under the control of a vet. Facilities will have to be provided for loading and unloading, with pens for isolating animals. A leading dealer said the controls would be so strict that "many of us will have to hang up the ash plant".
Mr Sean Doyle of Maynooth Mart said many dealers were complaining about the new regulations, which they felt were too restrictive and would drive them out of business.
"It would be a bad day for our mart if that happened because three quarters of the sales at Maynooth are to dealers" he said.