Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome to the meeting the following officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ms Paula Barry Walsh, deputy chief veterinary officer; Mr. Eoin Ryan, senior superintendent veterinary inspector; and Mr. Colm Forde, principal officer, who are all appearing remotely. We received their opening statement, which has been circulated to members. We are limited in our time due to Covid-19 safety restrictions. The committee has agreed that the opening statement will be taken as read so that we can use the full session for questions and answers as we did with the first half of this meeting. All opening statements are published on the Oireachtas website and are publicly available.

Before we begin, I draw attention to the fact that witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee. However, if they are directed by it to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to do so, they are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against a person, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. Participants at the committee meeting from a location outside the parliamentary precincts are asked to note that the constitutional protections afforded to those participating within the parliamentary precincts do not extend to them. No clear guidance can be given on whether or the extent to which their participation is covered by absolute privilege of a statutory nature.

I invite questions from the members and will begin with one from myself. For the first hour of this meeting we spoke to the stakeholders, that is, representatives of the four farming organisations. Clearly, farmers are worried about the design of the new strategy and that not enough focus will be placed on the part played by wildlife in the incidence of TB in the bovine herd. We have heard figures about the level of TB in the deer population in Wicklow and heard requests for more staff to be provided to vaccinate badgers. Will the new strategy focus on wildlife and the part it plays in the incidence of TB? The deer and badger are the two animals in the spotlight.

If the Department could address those issues, we will then go to further questions from members. I invite one of the Department officials to answer that question.