Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the different groups the IDMSG set up, has anyone looked at putting in proper fencing between farms and forestry that would stall deer eating most of the grass and maybe spreading infection? Mr. Cashman mentioned a few places. In Newbridge, County Galway, there are roads you cannot travel on at night with the herds of them going around the place. I am fairly familiar with the Wildlife Act but going by what has been said, it would be two years, at a push, before we would see good results. Some of the people we would be looking to change bits of legislation with might not be pushing it as fast as we would want, with some of the agendas being pushed in here. I am concerned legislation would be holding it up. Does Mr. Cashman fear that is a roadblock? If communities got together and did something, is there a way of taking them out, shooting them or blasting them? It is ferocious.

There was a story a few weeks or a month ago on thejournal.ie about regionalisation. Has that gone to bed? It was that you would not be able to sell cattle if you were in a certain area. Has that gone away?

Has vaccination worked with badgers? We are hearing mixed stories, with some saying it did not appear to. It would be nice to know if it has or not. If it is working, is there much of it going on at the moment? I am hearing there is not much vaccination of badgers going on.

The big problem for the Department in any TB breakdown – and it is no reflection on the witnesses - is it does not have enough boots on the ground or budget for that. When there is a breakdown of TB in an area, even for snaring badgers and so on, there is one person who will come out but the poor divils would want to make 40 out of themselves to be in 40 different places. The Department needs more resources if it is to tackle this head-on.

Addressing Mr. O'Mahony, I have been preparing for this morning by looking at the figures. On TB resistance, am I correct in saying that if you were to say that Ireland was free of TB, the Department's figures are for 300 herds or 15,000 cattle? Is that the guide it looks at as being TB-free? That is the information I have been given. I have spoken to vets, some in England and some in Ireland, who have done a lot of research. The witnesses probably know some of them. They say most cattle killed do not have TB going through the lungs and blood. Many show the lumps but when they go into the factory it is not full-blown TB. You could be doing everything right, putting every deer everywhere, and eliminating that side of it, because that is a problem. We know the badgers also are a problem but you could have cattle in a shed all the time and if they come under stress, especially on the dairy side, TB can start in them. Is that right or wrong? The information I have is there is no vaccine that will get rid of TB, but are there MRNAs that might stall it, like the Covid one? The make-up of a vaccine for a person and that for an animal, bullock or cow is totally different. As for farmers, is the pedigree side of it solved? You could have a fairly valuable animal and there was only a certain figure. Has agreement been reached on that for farmers? Manpower is a big problem for the Department. More funding needs to be put into tackling and resolving that as quickly as possible because it is a hellish problem for farmers.

My final point is for Conor or Damien. People say we will eradicate TB. Realistically, that will never happen.