Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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I have never met a vet in private practice who believes we will eradicate bovine TB from the island. I have no problem with the Department. I nearly have to declare an interest in that I have been locked up more often than not and I found the Department officials to be top-class, as are the private vets. I have no issue with any of the people involved or with the eradication programme. My question is whether we are being fair to people by calling it an eradication programme.

The Chairman and I, along with other colleagues who are in attendance today, listened six years ago to Dr. Good going through her 30-year strategy. She is a really serious operator and a formidable person. Unfortunately, eradication has not happened. The scheme has been changed since then, including through the introduction of blood testing, which has been very helpful with the process of taking out the next line. It has worked to some degree. However, what is the next step regarding closed herds that are continuously going down? There are scenarios in which a stock bull is probably the only animal that has been brought in, but the herd is continuously going down. That is a wildlife issue or could be considered to be a wildlife issue. We are not operating in a laboratory or another controlled environment. If we had such an environment, I could see how it could be controlled. However, we are dealing with farmers operating on an island.