Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Dr. Blake will correct me if I am wrong but my understanding is that we must have an eradication programme. I accept there are challenges in this regard. When I started in the Department, which was a long time ago, I was in the district veterinary office in Cavan. At that time, TB was on an upward curve but it subsequently came down. Sometimes, these things are cyclical. There are particular factors at this time that are making it difficult to deal with the disease. Without meaning to minimise the situation at all, what we still have is a low-level, very persistent disease that is very difficult to deal with. It transmits between animals, including wildlife and cows. We have to deal with all of those issues. To strike a slightly optimistic note, we eradicated brucellosis. If we were having a conversation about brucellosis ten years ago, the Senator would probably have been saying the same things about that disease as he is saying today about TB. We succeeded in eradicating brucellosis. On the terminology aspect, my understanding is that we are required to have a TB eradication programme and there could be all kinds of unwanted implications if we did not have it.