Mr. Hugh Farrell:

To follow on from Mr. Punch on the point about the eradication programme, it came up only this week at the TB forum meeting. It set a target for 2023 to 2025 of a status level or a goal we could achieve. We cannot do that either because we do not have wildlife or anything else in place. It is looking at alternatives. Eradication measures may be one way of driving it. In our hearts, we know a great many things have to be addressed and changed or it is not possible. There is no point saying otherwise as it is only misleading everyone else along with ourselves. That is being honest with the taxpayer and everyone else, including ourselves, in terms of who is funding it.

Mr. Punch has covered the issue of blood testing. On compensation, valuers and valuations, there should never have been a big forum or anything else. If we want to have somebody value a property or anything else for us, there are people licensed and qualified to do that job. It is like the members or anybody else in their own positions; everyone has their own job and we have to leave them to do it. They are now being directed by people who do not have those qualifications. This needs to be addressed. It should go back to the valuer. This would save a lot of time that is now being wasted when agreeing valuations, as Mr. Punch has said.

Regarding the factory return on salvages that Senator Lombard quoted, every cow going in there is coming back at a much lower grade, with the farmer being paid a lower premium. I heard a man saying he had got €210 for cows. There could be 80 cent to €1 lost on the salvage value, perhaps along with grade, weight and different things. I always remember being locked up and getting back £480 for cows. Every of them was worth £700 or more dead. We have to address that. It is not being monitored within the system. That is a loophole.

I will go back to the Chairman's question on pregnancy and in-calf heifers. Anyone that artificially inseminates or scans an animal has an artificial insemination or scanning certificate. That has to be acceptable. Everyone is working in good faith here. We need this to be done in that manner. That is the big thing for me.

Deputy Fitzmaurice mentioned the GDPR. Before Covid, when we were going to meetings in Backweston, we would sign in but we would not see our own name, let alone anything else. Still our names come out and we can be on every sheet of paper in the country, whether for bovine viral diarrhoea or TB. There is a real problem there and it needs to be addressed.

There was a question on herd breakdown and different issues going forward. With the science now, we need more identification. We got a few results at some of the last TB meetings with regard to a genotyping test. That is only being used on a trial basis. Some of the tests could be conducted far away. They may not always have been carried out on neighbours' animals.