Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his opening statement. I will probably chop and change a little bit between the sections but there are a couple of issues there. As the Minister mentioned, we had his officials in from the Department and from the TB forum in regard to TB.

It is a fairly major section of this. The Minister mentioned this and how he is prepared to discuss it in more detail. One of the things that came from that was that, basically, the proposals coming from the forum are to do more intensive testing to try to focus in on where the issues are, particularly the issues in regard to wildlife and so on. The problem we have identified to some extent is that doing more of the same may not work. We need reassurance, and certainly farmers need reassurance, that we will have a TB eradication programme that will deliver for farmers and for the sector.

An issue raised by myself and others here, including Senator Daly, is in regard to vaccination of the herd and the issues that has with regard to the market and marketing our produce. Is part of the investment here to examine the possibility of doing that and how that could work out? While we understand there are many markets out there that find it difficult to accept product from animals that have been vaccinated, at the same time, all of us humans are vaccinated everywhere in the world, and there has to be a certain level of coming to the conclusion that we need to look at this. With the model of farming we have in Ireland, where we have free-roaming animals out in the open all the time, grass-fed and intermingling with wildlife, it will be very difficult to fully eradicate TB. That is a conclusion that an awful lot of people, including an awful lot of farmers, are coming to.