Mr. T.J. Maher:

At the moment people qualify for income supplement while more than 10% of their herd is in a breakdown. We believe that all animals should be eligible for income supplement once a breakdown commences. That is part of the €7 million costing.

Regarding the Deputy's two previous points, we have a proposal on inconclusive results. There are currently less than 4,000 historical inconclusive results. Our proposal, which has gone to be costed, is that there would be an incentive for farmers to remove the animals at the end of their annual production cycle. That is far cheaper than full production value because farmers can sell when it suits them at the end of the production cycle but they would get an incentive to do that. It is far cheaper than paying vets to retest these animals year after year.

There is no basis in science for the EU law on six-month post-movement testing. We have clearly said that the vast majority of all reactors - 60% - are cows. If the Department is not able to amend that proposal with the EU, we have clearly stated in our proposal, which is before the implementation group, that we should target the pre-movement and post-movement test on cows. The cows that are going for slaughter and control feeding units should be removed from that. That would be far cheaper for everybody and it is based in science. That would be doing something to target the disease.