Mr. Michael Sheahan:

A very small number of people appeal the valuation. We also appeal a small number when we believe it is too generous or not accurate. While the issue is raised, we find in practice that it is not as significant as some might have someone believe.

A question was also asked about blood testing. It was probably covered earlier. We were asked if we would be using all out blood testing instead of skin testing. The answer is "No". The reason we cannot or would not do it is while there are many advantages to the blood test, it produces a higher level of false positives. If one was to test 100 cattle, one would get three false positives. As such, it is not a test one can use in the general population of 6 million cattle as one would end up with too many false positives. We only use it in herds where we know that there is a problem. In these cases, we use it in addition to the skin test. It then has the advantage of picking out infected animals not picked up by the skin test. It picks them up at an earlier stage. As such, it is a very useful extra tool in dealing with infected herds, but it is not a tool to use in the wider population, given the excessive number of false positives.