Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On that point, I challenge the Minister to set a date. I welcome the fact that he has committed to reconvening the forum, but I challenge him to get it done over the next week. This is an area where I happily admit that I do not have all the answers. I do not believe anybody does. The one thing I know is that the current set of policies and procedures is not working. The figures the Minister outlined for 2019 as opposed to 2009 do not show sufficient progress when one considers the millions of euro that have been spent on TB eradication programmes. Much of that funding came directly from the EU and that funding is likely to dry up. What we are likely to get in its place are EU-set policy provisions that might not necessarily work for the Irish family farm network. We have a collective responsibility to find the answers and to tackle TB in a way that does not penalise our farmers but ensures we move to the point the Minister outlined. He will have our full support on that but I believe we must have a complete re-think.

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