Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

To be clear, I brought forward a five-point plan in my engagement with farm organisations and other key stakeholders. At our summit a few weeks ago, that plan had 30 actions that were all possible measures that could be brought in to address all three elements of the challenge. Since I was appointed at the end of January, I engaged with the TB forum in February, asked the farm organisations and other stakeholders to make submissions, which they did, and then my chief veterinary officer attended the TB forum meeting in March. Our chief veterinary officer, Dr. June Fanning, put forward proposals from the Department at that meeting. There was significant feedback from the farm organisations on them and I amended those proposals, especially by beefing up the supports and extra interventions I was going to make on the wildlife side and resource elements across a number of different interventions.

The chair of the TB forum wrote to me saying he felt the forum had reached a point where it could not go any further in getting to a decision-making point. That is when I called the summit. On that day and last Thursday I was back west and have had 18 hours of detailed negotiations and engagement with farm organisations, highlighting that whatever the final plan looks like, it must address all three key areas of the spread of the disease. I would love to have consensus on it because I would hate farmers who are stressed by it to experience the mixed messaging that could come from conflict later. One area is wildlife, a second is cattle transmission and the third is the residual element left in herds.