Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. It is very clear that we and the Department are not doing enough. If we keep going the way we have gone for the past 46 years and we do not change something, it will be the same story for whoever is here in 50 years' time. There is no point in the world going around vaccinating badgers. We do not know whether they had TB, whether they were infected with it already or what the story is. The fact is they need to be culled. I was getting to the point that the big infestation of deer is in the 26,000 acres of national park.

They are able to roam from there all through east Kerry. They have spread to State and private forestries. We must fence our own lands to keep our animals off the road and to stop them going into the neighbours. The damage deer are doing to cars and people on the road has to be considered. Sadly, seven people were killed in the past two weeks. It does matter how a person is killed - whether it is by a deer, another vehicle or whatever - they are dead.

They go down on the skin test. We are told that when they are slaughtered in the factory, they are clear and there are no lesions or whatever. How is that? That needs to be explained to farmers. It is terrible. I know a farmer called Mikey Joe. He probably has a name for every cow he has. When they come in to be milked twice a day, he knows their names. When a cow goes down, he will know that many of them will turn out to be clean when they are slaughtered.

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