Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There absolutely is more we can do. We have to change our approach because the current approach is not working and if we continue to go as we are going, the cost on farmers and the cost out of my budget on compensation will be off the charts. If I have to spend more, I would prefer to spend it once-off on a long-term solution that addresses this. That is what the whole approach has been. The set of proposals I have worked through with my officials and all the key stakeholders that I first brought to the TB forum through my chief veterinary officer back in March and that we teased through back and forth in two days of summits in May have allowed us to get to a point where I think we can agree an approach - or we can have an approach; whether it is agreed is up to others - that will give farmers support. It will support those 94% who do not have it to stop it spreading and find that extra disease that is out there, is going undetected at the moment and is causing that problem. It is seeding it out. We have to address that. We have to do more in wildlife and we have to support our farmers across the board. That is what I am looking to do.