Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister for his reply. All Members are agreed this is an extremely important issue and it is essential that herds are kept free of disease and in particular of TB. However, the concern is there should not be overly severe restrictions on farmers whose farms are in proximity to farms on which there are infected herds. Once an acceptable level of disease control has been put in place, the farmer should be able to farm as normal and Sinn Féin has received some representations on this point. It also is important that no further additional costs be placed on the farmer due to the restrictions. Finally, I remind the Minister that I have spoken to him a number of times about one particular historical case. He might examine it again in the context of the effects on one particular farmer.

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