Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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The Chair has covered most of the ground but I want to pick up on the vaccination programme, particularly insofar as it relates to badgers. It sounds very much like we are going in the right direction. I am delighted to hear that and that our practice is underpinned by research that indicates vaccination is no less effective than culling. If you cull a badger, you create movement within the population because another animal moves in. How much money is going into the programme? Is it a case of resources? The numbers are pretty good. If we caught 9,000 badgers and it is reckoned that the wild population is about 90,000, it means that each year we are getting through 10% of what we imagine the badger population to be. How much money are we putting into this? Are the resources at the right level or could further resources be provided?