Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

TB Eradication Programme: Discussion

Mr. Eddie Punch:

The forum was useful, but there were 18 or so groups around the table. It should be reconvened to discuss the cost-benefit analysis, on-farm market valuations and the wildlife issue.

To a considerable extent, however, TB eradication is a matter for farm organisations to thrash out with the Department.

I agree on several points raised at this meeting, for example, off-farm income being taken into account in the hardship grant. A limit of €250 is unacceptable. Someone whose herd is locked up for the winter has a substantial additional feed cost. The existence of a small off-farm income is not enough reason to say that a person has not been impacted by a TB breakdown.

The TB forum has been a useful exercise, but how it would arrive at decisions was not properly defined. At many meetings, there was no consensus or the views of people who did not have skin in the game were taken into account in a way that should not have happened. The farmers were paying a substantial part of the bill, so their views should have carried more weight. We would raise questions about the forum. For example, outside expert opinion might be useful to the forum, but it should not be a voting part of the forum.

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