Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I thank Mr. O'Mahony and Dr. Barrett for coming before the committee this evening. This is something we have dealt with on a regular basis at the committee and on the field of play as farmers, which most of us here are. With the greatest respect to everybody involved, and there is no blame game here, as the opening statement relates, the situation is getting worse instead of better. I do not know where we go from here. Everything has been tried. The last time the witnesses came before the committee I spoke about vaccination. I heard a bit on Claire Byrne's radio programme the other morning and I know the Department is working in collaboration with the UK and monitoring its development of a vaccination. The issue is being able to tell the difference between a reactor and vaccinated animal.

It is probably an easy cliché, and this would not get the same determination, but we came up with the Covid vaccination for human beings in a matter of months. I know I am comparing apples with oranges and it is not a proper analogy to make. Given the amount of money we are spending and the lack of progress we are making, is there an argument to be made that we throw the proverbial kitchen sink at this with a pharmaceutical company, a scientific unit in a university or an expert in the field of science? Should we throw ten years' worth of TB money at this to come up with a vaccination? This will not be solved until we are vaccinating. I would like the opinions of the witnesses on that.

We are vaccinating badgers and it is very hit and miss. I get text messages about badger movement in my area but they are hit and miss. Some people will not respond to the text messages because they fear drawing the Department on top of them. This is human nature and it is a fact. Many of these things are ignored because someone thinks if they respond to say they saw a badger, they will have the whole Department down the following day. These measures are difficult to make work for many such reasons. What do the witnesses think about vaccination? Is there the potential to expedite it? This problem will not be solved until we are vaccinating.

Mr. O'Mahony spoke about the issues discussed at the TB forum which would be bitter pills to swallow but may have to be the next step. Whose decision would it be to move to this next level and introduce some of the measures he mentioned?