Mr. Tomás Bourke:

We are getting reports and they are working through it. Let us be clear; there have been significant improvements in the workings of the wildlife control programme over the past year or so. An extra €1 million was committed by the Minister to that programme in the last budget, but we have to see that in increased staff and resources for capturing, vaccinations and removals, and set identifications being carried out on the ground because having all of these agreed enhancements will not eradicate TB. Action on the ground is what will eradicate it, including the effective and timely implementation of the wildlife control programme.

The reality is the structure is there. Key decisions are being taken but they need to be implemented and they need to be given time to see the impact they will have on the levels of TB because there is no magic fix or silver bullet. Measures taken today will probably take two, three or four years to come through in a meaningful way in the figures. From our perspective, the current iteration of the TB forum is far more effective than the original concept of it and there is the opportunity to advance issues. The workings of the finance working group were significantly delayed because of a change around staffing last year. It probably resulted in a six-month period where we did not have any engagement. Who is to blame for that? I would not blame the structure of the forum, but there were staffing issues due to changes in the Department, which meant work on the areas of the support payments could not be progressed to the level we would like them to be at this point.