Mr. Tomás Bourke:

I will send in the age analysis of the TB reactors. It is based on information provided by the Department. We will submit all of that. It makes for interesting reading and validates the position that has been adopted regarding pre-movement and post-movement testing because it avoids any impact in the marketplace on the bulk of the animals we trade.

As has been noted, Scotland has eradicated TB. As a result of that, we engage directly with farmers, vets and elected farm representatives in Scotland to see exactly what they did differently from us. The substantive message is that they did not have a TB problem in the wildlife like we did and, therefore, their on-farm animal controls were adequate. When we discussed the controls we had in place, even prior to amending them, the people we spoke to were of the view that they had achieved eradication with lesser on-farm controls. The disease has to be addressed in wildlife in order to address it in the bovine population. Until you break that link you cannot achieve eradication. The answer in that regard is that Scotland did not have to do anything with deer from the point of view of TB. They also did not have to do anything with badgers as there was not the same level of interaction because of the location of the two species. Unfortunately, we have a situation where there is very close interaction between badgers and cattle and there is a high prevalence of disease within the badgers. It is cyclical and you have to break it within both species. We cannot just focus on cattle. We have to reduce the density of badgers.

It is the same principle with deer. The Department has regularly referenced studies on this. Any real disease control is based on density reduction and reducing the opportunity for spread. That is why the peak of the problem is in Wicklow, although it is now being replicated elsewhere. As the national deer population has been allowed to increase year on year without any natural predator, density has increased and their level of encroachment on farmland has increased dramatically. The key issue here is density reduction around TB outbreaks and a national control programme to bring the deer back to a population level that is sustainable within their environment. We do not need a census. The measure will be when the deer are being maintained in their own natural habitat and we as farmers are no longer feeding them in our fields, and they are no longer mixing with our cattle, knocking our fences or affecting our plantations. That will be the census for us as farmers and that will reduce the disease threat.