Ms Paula Barry Walsh:

I will respond to the first point raised on the success or failure of the TB programme. We should remember what the TB programme set out to do back in 1956. Fundamentally, the purpose of the programme was to have the necessary national herd health status to allow us to trade so we could start to export and continue to export. In this sense, the TB programme plays an important role. Clearly, it has failed to eradicate it but the strategy drawn up through discussion and consultation sets a path forward or a roadmap whereby we can drive towards eradication over the next ten years. This will require extra actions.

As has been mentioned already with regard to where we are going, doing the same things will not necessarily get there. What we do need to do is look at what other countries have achieved. We know the policy frameworks they had. They are available to us. What we need to do now, and when I say "we" I mean all the stakeholders, including the farmers and the Department together with the farm organisations, is to look at the extent and bandwidth of the toolkit and policies that are out there. We need to be able to apply them as appropriate to drive us towards eradication. This is really the way forward for the scheme. I will hand over to my colleague to respond to the questions on the samples from reactors in factories and the various other issues.