Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation which has brought clarity to an issue that has faced Irish agriculture for 70 or 80 years. At a meeting a couple of weeks ago representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine expressed the wish that we would be TB free by 2030, which will be a significant challenge for the veterinary and farming sectors in Ireland taking account of the wildlife aspect, such as deer and badgers, in many locations such as Wicklow. We face many challenges in terms of trying to make Ireland TB-free. This follows on from the attempts in recent years to make Ireland brucellosis free, which was done on the back of an exact blood test.

This project will be a little different given the wildlife aspect. Will Dr. Good touch on how we will deal with the wildlife aspect when we deal with TB in future? It is an issue the agricultural community is greatly concerned about in key locations, particularly with regard to forestry, deer and badgers. To some degree, Dr. Good has brought clarity to the infamous blood test issue. I thought there was a 24 hour and a 12 hour test. How the blood tests intermingle with the skin test is an issue. The issue of high sensitivity if there is a reactor in a locality needs to be addressed. Does every district veterinary office have its own view on this or is there one view from the Department on how we as a nation deal with sensitivity tests? Farmers, and neighbouring farmers in some locations, being under the scrutiny of high sensitivity tests is an issue that might have to be looked at.

Every year there are 8 million skin tests, which is an amazing figure. When it comes to blood testing the reactor, do we go through a process of doing a 24 hour test first and then an eight hour test or do we go straight to the eight hour test? There are two laboratories in Ireland. Does Dr. Good believe this is sufficient? Will we be able to work through the system? Does she see the blood test being the key element in the 2020 strategy and having Ireland TB free?

An issue raised by farmers is the movement of animals from restricted herds. Is Dr. Good happy with the time it takes to do the blood test and paperwork and get the reactor to a factory? Is Dr. Good happy this time is tight enough when it comes to infected animals? Does she believe more work can be done to reduce this time so it takes less than ten days? In some locations it could drag out to more than three weeks.

I have never met Dr. Good but from what I have heard in Cork she is well able and efficient.