Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I am conscious of the time and will be brief. This is known as the tuberculosis eradication strategy. We have talked about eradicating tuberculosis for almost 70 years. As a farmer myself, I am beginning to think what we are at is more identification or location. Eradication is not something we seem to be mastering. I would like if the different farm representative bodies would comment. I am aware the implementation group met today and I would like the witnesses' feedback from that. I saw a press release from the Minister. Will the witnesses inform the committee of how they felt that went and whether progress is being made?

I was on the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine during the previous Dáil. We dealt with this in late 2017 or early 2018. We got positive feedback and the numbers were relatively good at that stage, but there has been a decline since 2016. Will the witnesses tell us, in their opinion, what has caused that decline? We seemed to be going in the right direction but it has taken a nosedive since 2016.

As a farmer, this seems to be a firefighting regime. The debate is always about financial compensation and issues post having a breakdown in a herd. Macra na Feirme's submission in particular highlights that. We are good at the follow-up supports. What more can we do for preventive management? How can we get to a situation where we are actually doing what we say we want to do and working towards eradication as opposed to identification?