The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, TD, today announced a two-week extension to the closing date for submission of the 2013 Sheep Census. ‘I have decided to extend the closing date in order to give farmers sufficient time to complete and return the Census’ the Minister said, noting that there is a legal requirement on all flock owners to complete and return the Census form. ‘It’s essential that farmers take time to fully and accurately complete the Census, as failure to do so may prevent the ordering of sheep tags or lead to cross compliance penalties and, indeed, could affect certain Scheme applications’ the Minister said, adding ‘Therefore, while the closing date for receipt of completed forms had initially been fixed for Friday, 31 January, I have decided to extend this by a further two weeks, to Friday, 14 February. I must emphasise, however, that there is no scope to extend this date further’.

Date Released: 05 February 2014