Dr. Conor O'Mahony:

We understand the need for payment. The main issue is the farmer is entitled to have that animal live valued to get a compensation value put on it. That is the primary reason. To be fair to the farmer, he or she is entitled to have that animal independently valued, which is what we have in place. That process is key to ensuring that the farmer gets compensation that is of a market value to allow him or her to deal with the financial impact of the outbreak. I accept that the emotional impact of an outbreak is something different. In individual cases, we work with local farming organisation representatives when there are particularly hard cases around the country through all the DVOs and our front-line staff.