Mr. Eoin Ryan:

As Mr. Sheahan stated, there is a lot of stakeholder engagement taking place. We have been involved in many public meetings recently and I have gone around the country with my colleagues. There have been many public meetings and meetings with farm organisations. The deer issue comes up repeatedly and I know the strength of feeling on it. I will say now what I say repeatedly at these public meetings, at the bilaterals with the farm organisations and when I been interviewed by farm media on these issues, namely, there is no evidence deer play a significant role in transmitting TB to cattle in most of the country outside Wicklow.

I will deal with Wicklow first. Most land in Wicklow is not farmed, farmers are not the majority landowners and there is a huge deer population. Deputy Cahill is right that a Department-funded research project was done a few years ago and found that 16% of deer shot as part of the pilot project in Wicklow had TB and that the same strains of TB were circulating in cattle, badgers and deer in this part of Wicklow. The Department is facilitating farmers to take action in Wicklow in this regard. In fact, I am attending a meeting tomorrow of the Wicklow deer management committee which will be attended by farm organisations, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Coillte, the Department and local hunters. This is facilitating farmers and hunters who want to shoot deer and reduce deer numbers. This has been working quite well and a tender was signed off some months ago to renew it and extend it across Wicklow.

Outside Wicklow, there just is not the evidence that deer are playing a role in transmitting to cattle at significant levels. I am not saying it does not happen at all but we have to try to base our policies on the evidence and the risks. For example, in the past 18 months we have tested in our regional veterinary laboratories 74 wild deer from across the country but, outside Wicklow. Only three of those 74 animals had TB. When we were at the public meeting in Killarney, I was asked about this and was told there was concern that deer in Kerry were driving TB levels. It was reassuring to be able to provide the information to farmers that of 39 wild deer tested in Kerry in the past year and a half, only one had TB. In the meeting in Nenagh some weeks ago, people from Clare were quite concerned but we tested 16 deer from Clare recently and none had TB. It is certainly the case that deer can get infected with TB and it is conceivable that deer can pass it to cattle. The question is not whether it ever happens; it is whether this is a significant route of infection.

Having said that, we are happy to look at this. Our policy is the same as it always has been but we are trying to do better at communicating it. Where there are local concerns among farmers that deer may be a factor, as in the scenario the Deputy outlined, we are happy to test deer if farmers want to co-ordinate locally, get the deer shot and submit them to a regional veterinary laboratory. We will test them for free and pass that information on. We are also happy to facilitate local meetings between farmers, landowners and hunters to try to address this. That is what we do, and that is how many of the deer that are shot come in. This policy is on our website. I have spoken about it several times, and the farm organisations are aware of it, but perhaps we need to do better at getting that out there. I completely agree with the point Deputy Cahill made: there is a perception that the Department is saying it does not want to talk about deer. We are actually happy to talk about deer but we are even happier to talk about things for which there is evidence and into which we should put our efforts. Therefore, if evidence comes to light that there is some part of the country where deer are playing a significant role in spreading TB to cattle, we will be happy to support measures to address that. Farmers can take steps to reduce the numbers of deer. It is difficult for a single farmer to do so, of course. They can shoot them and, if it is out of season, they can apply to the National Parks and Wildlife Service for a section 42 licence, but it is more effective if they co-ordinate locally across an area. This is the approach that has been taken in Wicklow involving the farm organisations and we are happy for that approach to be taken elsewhere. The issue just has not arisen, so again, it is not that we are saying deer never, ever pass TB to cattle, but it is the case that outside Wicklow there is no evidence deer play a significant role. Even within Wicklow, it is not clear which species is transmitting to which. As I said, though, I will attend a meeting tomorrow in Wicklow with the local management partnership there. I hope that provides some information on deer.