Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for outlining the issues with TB. Before I go to the committee members I want to be the devil's advocate here. The Committee of Public Accounts has focused on the cost of TB to the Exchequer. It is 20 years since there was an agreement that farmers would pay for their annual herd test and there was a reduction of levies at that stage. My understanding of that agreement at that time was that the cost of TB would be spread 50:50 between farmers and the Department. As costs are now escalating, how do the witnesses see funding for TB being acquired going forward? When we said we would pay for our own herd test, it was a clear agreement that the costs would be evenly shared. Thankfully the price of livestock is increasing which obviously drives up the price of reactors and of compensation and rightly so. Income supplements and everything else also need to be increased to reflect the increasing price of the produce that animals would be producing and the costs that are being borne on farms. On the issue of the eradication of TB and I think wildlife is a huge issue, before I go to the other members, I would like the witnesses to focus on how they see the costs of the proposals that are coming, the cost of the reactors and the cost of the control of wildlife activity being met.