Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 11 December 2018
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Ireland's TB Eradication Programme: Discussion
3:30 pm
Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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There is no better example to use than that put forward by the Chairman. I breed suckler cows but I supply purebred bulls. I have not had TB in my herd in the past ten years. I farm very close to an esker, a big wildlife habitat with many badgers around so the risk is always there. By publishing that information, if I had a reactor next year which would be the first in ten years, I might as well fold up the tent for the next ten years. That is the reality and I am only one of many examples. I could close the gate for the next ten years if the fact that I had a reactor is published while at the same time stating that there can be a ten-year dormant history in a herd. It would be ten years before I would be fully clear again in the eyes of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I would be out of business.
I am one of many. There are two sides to every coin.