Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

If a badger is examined and tested and is found to have TB, then for its own sake it needs to be culled as well as to stop the spread of the disease to other badgers, bovines and others within the community. Vaccination has a role to play but the vaccination process we have used to date has not worked to the same extent. I will be very clear. There are three causes of the spread of this disease and wildlife is one of them. As the Deputy knows in her county and mine, deer are a significant contributor. We have had deer management units established that will play an important role. The Deputy is also right to say there are animal husbandry and other measures in here as well. That is why we have the five pillars of approach, which have 30 proposed actions under them. I said at the start that not all actions need to be implemented but we need a critical mass of them to layer over each other. They would include biosecurity measures like fencing off a badger sett. That makes a big difference. I want to communicate this better with farmers. They think it is kind of a strange thing as it will not stop the badger coming out of the sett. It is not about stopping the badger. The badger does not want to interact with the bovines. Bovines by their nature are nosey. They tend to go and nose in around the sett or the latrine in front of it. Badgers tend to urinate there. That is not what we want. We need to keep the cattle back from them and keep the division between them. Measures like this and raising water troughs are things I want to support farmers to do, as well as the other measures here, to stop that interaction.

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