Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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It provides information, but I am not happy with Mr. Ryan's answer, with all due respect to him. I can list seven or eight instances in my county where there have been outbreaks of TB in the past year and a half to two years. The vast majority of them are bound in forestry, and the deer are grazing the same land and drinking the same water as the cattle. I just cannot understand the Department's contention that deer are not playing a part in transmitting the infection. Mr. Ryan said that in Wicklow 16% of the deer were found to have TB and he quoted figures from other places. To expect the farmers to be able to get a significant cull of deer is expecting too much. The deer population is expanding rapidly. There is no doubt in my mind that the deer have TB. I think the percentage is the only thing in question. We are talking about putting serious restrictions on farmers. Mr. Ryan spoke about brucellosis. Farmers went through great expense to eradicate brucellosis, between post-movement tests and pre-movement tests and all the rest. I know wildlife can spread brucellosis, but if one contains the infection in the dairy herd or the suckler herd, in the female population, brucellosis can be controlled. The same does not hold for TB at all. If the deer stayed in their own habitats, it would be fine, but the deer population is expanding so rapidly that they are not staying in their own habitats and are now using the same habitats as the farm animals. In Rossmore, County Tipperary, there were two bad outbreaks in which two herds were completely wiped out. In Killoscully ten or 12 herds are locked up. The farmers and I are convinced that deer are at the root of their problems. A lot more research into the deer question will have to be carried out and there will have to be a lot more control of the population to make farmers confident in their attempts to reduce further the number of reactors.