Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the four groups for coming in. It is always great to hear and see them. They give such an informed insight into the industry and we learn an awful lot when they come in. I will deal with each of the groups. I have one question for each of them. An outsider looking in would say it has taken us 70 years to get this far. We went from a prevalence rate of bovine TB of 80% with 17% infections to just 4%. We are marketed as one of the most ambitious, intelligent and technologically-advanced countries in the world and we still have not been able to eradicate TB.

Hypothetically speaking, if a large public limited company, plc, or multinational company decided to take over Irish farming and suddenly became "Irish Farming plc", the first decision it would make to reduce costs and streamline farming would be to eradicate TB because the disease costs the guts of €100 million per year. If an additional €10 million was front-loaded into eradication every year, the problem would surely be resolved within ten years.

We are constantly told about the tight margins with which farmers are working. Whether the direct and indirect costs to farmers amount to €35 million or €55 million, if that was put back in farmers' pockets, it would substantially improve the sector. I am sure the Department would prefer not to be spending €27 million on this each year. All told, it makes sense to eradicate TB by 2030.

I will put questions to Macra na Feirme first. Mr. Keane is gone so I am not sure whether Ms Richardson or Mr. Fitzgerald wishes to respond. New Zealand was cited as one of the examples of best practice throughout the world. I am conscious of the time. As succinctly as possible, will Macra na Feirme give us an example of a country where TB has been eradicated or all but eradicated? What has that country done that we have not done?