Mr. Eddie Punch:

It is very simple. The Department has become a little hung up, for want of a better word, on the idea that the track record of a farm over several years would be presented on mart boards or under herd categorisation, such as in letters sent to farmers. The implication is that, even though a farmer may be clear of TB and his or her herd may have passed the TB test, he or she may be somehow less safe as a source of livestock than his or her neighbour because his or her farm had TB, say, three or four years ago and the neighbour did not. We think that is a dangerous road to go down because the implication is the devaluation of one herd against another. Moreover, it will ultimately devalue the merit of the herd test. If someone's herd test indicates that all the stock is clear, that must be either accepted, as is the foundation of the entire TB programme, or not accepted. While it may have made some academic sense to examine this from some sort of research point of view, in the real commercial world in which farmers have to operate it creates an appalling vista whereby people would be financially devastated by having their herds devalued. In tandem with that, when we discuss the Department’s concerns about the cost of compensation, for example, we cannot now introduce an element that creates a significant devaluation of some stock that has nonetheless passed the TB test, and not accept that has incredible implications for the cost of the programme as a whole.

For those reasons, we in the ICSA and other farm organisations are deeply alarmed at the proposal that this information would be shown on mart boards. As committee members will be aware, mart proceedings are now shown live on video as well, so it would mean advertising the information far and wide. Furthermore, even though we succeeded in getting that rolled back, a letter sent out last year seemed to create an impetus to reintroduce that topic by the back door. We do not accept it is a good road to go down. The TB testing programme either works or it does not.