Ireland will be audited on cattle welfare, the use of plant protection products and pesticide residues and antimicrobial resistance by the EU this year.

For Irish beef enterprises, there will be on-farm animal welfare audits across the country. Audits will also take place in Belgium, France and Germany this year.

This audit will "verify the effectiveness of the member states' official controls to avoid any avoidable pain and suffering to cattle kept in farms for beef production".

Tillage

In relation to chemical safety, Ireland will be audited to verify compliance with the applicable EU legislation governing the authorisation, marketing and use of plant protection products and pesticide residues.

The sustainable use of pesticides will also be a factor in this audit, which will also take place in Czech Republic, France and Italy.

Ireland, along with Croatia, Malta and Portugal, will also be audited for antimicrobial resistance.

The audit is to ensure compliance with the legislation governing the monitoring of antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic and commensal bacteria.

With this, each country's contribution and implementation of the 2017 European One Health Action Plan against antimicrobial resistance will be monitored closely.

Calf transport

Three EU member states - France, Netherlands and Poland - will be inspected on calf transport.

This audit aims to verify member states' compliance with the EU legislation governing the welfare of unweaned calves during transport.

Between 2021 and 2025, the EU plans to have audited between 10 and 12 member states, with a view to produce an overview of intra-EU transport of calves.

Audits

The range of audits are contained in the European Commission's health and food safety audit programme for 2023.

They are aimed at ensuring member state controls in the areas of food and feed safety, animal health, animal welfare, plant health and EU quality standards are in line with EU law.

Controls planned in 2023 amount to 288, including 165 audits and similar controls, as well as 123 analyses.