Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will touch on the TB eradication programme because the figures can appear stark when taken in a certain context. I looked through the figures for previous years and discovered that the spend on the TB eradication programme in 2014 was more than €86 million and that 16,000 cases of TB were detected. Last year, the spend was €98 million and 23,000 cases detected. Where this becomes more of a concern to the Committee of Public Accounts is the fact that the EU funding element of that decreased from €12 million in 2014 to a little over €5 million last year. Does Mr. Gleeson accept that there is a problem in that we are spending a lot of money? A huge proportion of that money comes directly from farmers. When Mr. Gleeson was talking about the programme being rolled out in factories with regard to Covid mechanisms, I was struck by the fact that the associated costs involved are not being levied from factories. In the context of the TB programme, a substantial levy is imposed on farmers in the context of meeting the overall cost. Does Mr. Gleeson accept that the TB eradication programme is not working? Is there a need for a fundamental review of how we spend this huge sum of money?