Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are two quick points I would like to make following on from points that were made by others. One is on beef data. If, as may be the case, it pans out that there is an ongoing underspend and the provision of €52 million turns out not to be met, would the Minister consider providing a similar scheme to improve quality based on the same principles in the sheep sector? Specifically, I am thinking of scrapie-free as being part and parcel of the conditions, and perhaps even EID tagging, although maybe not everyone would agree. It is possibly something that could be used as a mechanism to get farmers to buy into it.

I suppose the Minister will not be surprised when I say my second point is about disease control. The rates of tuberculosis, TB, are falling, but not where I come from. On this issue, I must raise a flag. There is a particular problem to do with the deer population, not specific to but very much to the fore in Wicklow's case, and it will spread. While we have had cross-departmental meetings, when I mentioned to an official that perhaps the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine would take a lead the official stated the Department did not have the resources. There is a saving of €6 million and the amount needed to put up a robust plan to deal with this problem in Wicklow is a mere fraction of that. Those are the two points I would like to raise.