Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 14 January 2026

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food

Biosecurity: Discussion

2:00 am

Dr. Eoin Ryan:

No, but what I will say is that we recently launched a new biosecurity strategy, which I hope some of the committee members will have seen. It sets out some of the plans for the future to work with farmers and stakeholders on this. It is worth mentioning that one of the outcomes of our previous biosecurity strategy, which is a useful document, was that we launched a range of codes of practice for specific sectors of industry, including poultry, dairy and pigs. That is working with farmers, and they have been very useful in providing specific, practical guidance on what to do to protect farms. It was developed with farmers and vets who work in those specific areas and is supported by a considerable amount of funding given to Animal Health Ireland to provide training to farmers delivered by its vets on practical biosecurity, not the theoretical stuff, but what farmers can do today to reduce the threat to their poultry, pigs or whatever it may be. That has been a really positive outcome of the last biosecurity strategy.