Mr. Hugh Farrell:

Yes, I would like to speak on behalf of the Irish Cattle & Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA. I will continue by referring back to Senator Daly's question on today’s implementation group meeting. It was intense enough for two hours or more. We found that we were at a big disadvantage in one sense because we were limited in where we were. There is a three-way division here with the implementation, finance and the science aspect of it. As far as we are concerned, the implementation or programme as far as disease has been brought forward more than has the finance. This happened in the last 18 months or so. Until the finance comes up on a par we cannot be pushing forward with new levels of introduction, like the discussion today about the inconclusive areas. Yes, we want to see inconclusives sorted out but the discussion there about taking 2,000 of them out and the locking up of herds to that extent without compensation is not practical. We have to look at a different regime.

Furthermore, there is a derogation where there is change in April which is going to have a big impact on these things that we were not led to believe would happen prior to this at the meetings. I think it has been difficult for the new chairman and he has done a great job to bring this forward. There was a kind of hindrance there. We need more crossflow or interaction between the two to come forward on this issue.

As to moving forward on TB, we want to see the removal of reactors as an urgent matter. The question of having animals left on a farm for anything from two to five weeks is an issue. There has been talk of bio-security and this is surely the worst type of this.

We see farms then, as has been mentioned by previous speakers, where there are both badger and deer and mention of having a roadmap down the country for the badger and for their setts. We need background detail on where these badgers are being snared or caught and we also need to know what the test results are. As we know, they are not being tested or this is happening with a very small number of them.

The same applies to vaccinating. We can see that there is a big programme in Monaghan. Has this led to findings of sick badgers or ones that have turned positive that were not tested prior to vaccination, as one moves in on the Cavan, Meath and Louth border? Are we pushing this further ourselves by not spending more money, doing the testing and carrying out the programme appropriately?

We want to see this dealt with as urgently as we can because of the number of people that are hit and badly affected by this. Furthermore, there is a big issue with the herd test, where there is a variation both in blood, the gamma and the skin test. Farmers are constantly contacting us and are frustrated with this. This is happening where herds are being depopulated where they never had problems and in areas where there are no other problems. These are some of the issues that we wish to see addressed.

To move forward then the issues are that wildlife is at crisis, the removal of reactors needs to be addressed, and there is a need for much more understanding and co-operation with partners instead of this severe approach. We have to start managing this in a completely different way and bringing it forward on a faster note. I thank the committee.