To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (i) for his assessment of the difficulties being faced by farmers in relation to the Northern Ireland Food Animal Information System; and (ii) what steps he will take to improve this.

The latest stage of NIFAIS went live on 4th September 2023, for bovine functionality. Alongside this software release DAERA introduced changes around how access to individual herds was managed. This caused frustration for some farmers and agents who could previously access a specific herd but now could not. This change was implemented to comply with GDPR requirements and was not linked to NIFAIS software. Communications have been issued to advise farmers, and agents, how access to herd information online can be granted.

Whilst NIFAIS did initially have some performance issues the main cause of these issues was identified as an NICS infrastructure issue and was fixed.

On a weekly basis, approximately 8500 bovine animals move to markets and 9500 bovine animals move to abattoirs across Northern Ireland. All these moves are created or recorded on NIFAIS which operates continually on a 24/7 basis.

My NIFAIS team is in constant contact with all external stakeholder groups to make system improvements where required. Farmers having issues with NIFAIS know to contact their local DAERA Direct Office, where help will be provided, or the issue will be escalated to the NIFAIS team if necessary.