Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for coming here. It has been a very interesting session. It is very interesting to hear all the angles and takes on the matter. TB testing has been going on since I was a young fellow anyway. That was quite a while ago. We did succeed in the warble fly eradication and with brucellosis. Other countries have practically got rid of TB and what is happening here is worrying. It is very clear that the deer and badgers are causing the problem. The deer have moved into farms. Before they were in the national park and up on the top of the mountains but they are practically inside our village now. Many is the morning you could go over the road and there will be a deer that has been killed by a car just outside the 30 km/h limit area. They are inside the town in Killarney. Something has to be done about that. It is time now because not enough recognition is being given to the upset this is causing to farmers. One man told me how he was locked up and got clear. Then, after ten months, he was locked up again. Another constituent, Tim, is a milking man who sold six cows the other day in a mart. One was killed out with lesions but now they are telling him that he will not get any test results back for two months. He says when his father went down 40 years ago, the lorry came and took the offending animals and two days later they were tested. There are more laboratories now with more testing ability. Surely it should not take 60 days to come back with a definite result or that he cannot be tested until then? It think Mr. Bourke mentioned young cattle and calves. This man will be loaded with 60 calves that he has no housing for. It is February. They cannot go out in a field until May around our way. It poured in Kerry yesterday and it was the grandest day of the year here. We have a different climate down there. It is heading for more of that. Something needs to be done to help the likes of that man.

We have been told by the witnesses there were 20,000 reactors and 4,000 herds. Those figures are massive. I am sure that if something was done with the deer and the badgers, it would help. I will give an example of another farmer. He was a small milking man in the middle of other, bigger dairy farms. They kept going down continuously. They might get clear for a bit and then they would go down again; they would get clear again and go down again. This man, inside the middle of them, never went down. I will tell you why. What he did may have been illegal but he stopped the badgers coming in. He dealt with the badgers. In one year he dealt with 111, big and small. That proves that the badgers are causing the problem. Now, I do not condone that - I am asking that they either be vaccinated or culled properly - but they cannot keep this thing going. Farmers' backs and hands are broken and help is very scarce, as the Chair knows.

There was mention of the thrill seeker who said that all farms and all of Ireland should be opened up to walkers. I do not approve of that. We can see what is happening with the deer where these fellows can go from one farm to the next without any control and can wander around. I bet if you went to his house, he most likely would have an electric gate and you would not get inside that. He is the very same man who wants to open up the country, spread disease and do what he likes. He might bring an old dog with him or something that would hunt sheep. These are ridiculous types of suggestions and statements. I know that the Chair would not approve of that and nor would any of the representatives here.

I am very grateful to have the opportunity to listen to everyone. I came in here the very minute I knew they were here. I appreciate everything. I know that they are good men to have on the farmers' side and I appreciate them very much. I am happy to give any help that I can give to do something about the deer. The deer are fine. We have nothing against deer but they must go up the hills away out of the farmers' fields and let the farmers farm. Things are tough enough. Look at the fertiliser and everything. Testing has to stop somewhere.