Results 21-40 of 7,939 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Michael Fitzmaurice: I am asking if, at the end of the year, the Department has to give it back. Why would the Minister look for more money? The Department should be able to carry it over. Is that right?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the witnesses for coming in. They talked about vaccinating badgers and cattle. We know from English trials that vaccinating cattle has not worked. They were showing as positive when tested a second time. How does the Department know it is working for badgers?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Forget about the science. It was said that when an animal is tested, if we put the vaccine for a bullock or heifer onto them, we cannot know - the English are going back again and redoing it - because they are showing as having TB. We have said we are not testing badgers. How do we know this is working and is not a charade of a test?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The witnesses said they are not testing the badgers that were vaccinated. Is that right?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, but the vaccinated badgers are not tested.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: How does the Department know it is working then?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Dr. Barrett is talking about science that someone else did. The Department has not done it on the ground.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The Department does not test badgers that have been vaccinated. Is it yes or no?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Is there no problem about that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: If I buy a cow and she had not been tested for six months, am I not right that I have to test her again?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: At the moment if a herd breaks down, to get rid of cattle, they can be sent to feed lots. Is that right?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: My understanding is that a feed lot is not always a shed. It is where there is double fencing on either side. What is to stop a badger from roaming in there to them and roaming out?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: There is more stipulation on an ordinary farmer than on a feed lot. Am I right or wrong?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, there are, a fence each side. That is the stipulation.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Farmers are also being asked to fence off setts.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: And farmers. Everyone thinks a feed lot is a shed. It is not. It is also land with double fencing each side. That is the regulation and that is what they do. I am not saying a word to them. Badgers cannot be stopped from travelling there and travelling somewhere else, but the Department says infected cattle can go there, but nowhere else.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: This clock has gone arseways altogether, because I had four minutes a while ago and now I have 58 seconds.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: No, fair is fair. In the line of proposals, I have heard this from a few people. Are the paddocks where a lot of cows are together showing more infections? A "Yes" or "No", please, because my time is running out.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: We are hearing from different Department officials that where there are a lot of cattle together, they are breathing-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: TB Eradication Programme: Discussion (18 Jun 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: That is all I wanted to know. Farmers are getting sick of this. When there is a breakdown in an area, we hear about a severe or less severe interpretation. We put the gear into them and it shows they have gone down or not. Why, then, are there so many false positives on this blood test? My understanding is that there are asymptomatic cattle that never show up, but there is a UCD test....