Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, to answer Senator McGreehan’s Commencement matter. I congratulate him and Senator Martin on Kildare's All-Ireland under-20 victory last Sunday.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Up the lilies.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I am sure Senator McGreehan will be still wearing the red of Louth.

Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State is very welcome to the House to discuss my request that consideration be given to having a review of the compensation package for farmers for the cull of livestock as a result of the foot and mouth disease outbreak in Louth in 2001. I find this very difficult to speak about. It was a very upsetting time in all our lives in north Louth. It was 22 years ago but, given the hurt, it is like it happened yesterday. No one here or in the Department could ever imagine the upset and trauma the culling of all the animals - healthy animals, I must add - caused among the entire community of the Cooley Peninsula in north Louth.

I will bring the House back to that panic of February, March and April 2001 and the national disaster involving a disease that could ruin our biggest indigenous industry. Our peninsula was not our own any more: gardaí, Department officials, the Army and the media all moved into our beautiful, usually peaceful farming community. There was so much fear and uncertainty. We feared for our neighbours' stock and we feared for our own stock. We feared the worst, and the worst happened. We tended to our sheep, the newborn lambs and the new calves in the hope and optimism that spring brings, but everything turned so bleak in light of what was to come. There was a rush to action in the national interest. Farmers knew the cull had to happen, and great co-operation was given by the farmers of the Cooley Peninsula at the time of the cull.

There was a compensation package, but from very early on, as the Department will be very much aware, the farmers affected were not satisfied with the valuations. There were meetings, protests and rows over the different approaches that should be taken and lots of division among friends, neighbours and families as to what was the best course of action for the devastated community. A review of the valuations was announced and concluded in May 2001, and farmers did get a top-up on the original valuations. That was an opportunity to get it right, but the Department did not take that opportunity, despite continued protests outside Leinster House and in Dundalk. Some farmers were so frustrated by how they were treated and how their livelihoods were taken from them that they initiated legal action in order to get adequate compensation. There was a clear understanding at the time that once legal action was concluded, other farmers would be dealt with by the Department. That court action has continued for decades. After 21 years, the Department has settled with a group of farmers who took to the courts to get what they were entitled to. Financial packages have rightly been paid out to those farmers. Now, we have the most unsatisfactory situation whereby there are two tiers of compensation packages: one for the farmers who took a legal challenge; and one for the others who believed the Department at the time that it would be willing to reopen negotiations with representatives after the legal action was over.

The crux of this matter is that each farming family made the same sacrifice, with the same losses and the same trauma, and they all co-operated with the cull, but some are now being treated differently. The substantial issue is that it sets a very bad tone for the future co-operation and goodwill of farmers and the faith we have in the Department, and that faith will be reduced. If we are to have any expectation of co-operation from farmers in any future disease outbreak like that given by the Cooley farmers, surely it is time to put this matter to rest.

I thank the Minister of State. I look forward to his response.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising those points and articulating very well the emotion there was and is around what was a terrible time in our country. My colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, regrets that he cannot attend today. He is on a trade mission overseas representing Irish farmers and the Irish agrifood industry and he has asked me to attend in his place.

The foot and mouth crisis in Ireland in 2000 and 2001 was a particularly harrowing and stressful time for businesspeople right across the economy, particularly for farmers. Foot and mouth disease is a highly contagious virus found in cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and deer and is one of the most contagious animal diseases. Animals can become infected through inhalation, ingestion or reproduction. It has the capability to spread long distances via the wind under certain circumstances.

The then Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Joe Walsh, took stringent measures in response to the outbreak of foot and mouth in an abattoir in Essex, UK, in February 2001 to try to prevent transmission of the disease in Ireland. Despite those efforts, however, Ireland experienced its first foot and mouth outbreak since 1941 in March 2001. On 22 March 2001, an outbreak was confirmed in a sheep flock near Jenkinstown, County Louth, as the Senator will be all too well aware. As foot and mouth disease is so contagious, the only way to contain any further incursion of the disease in the country was to cull a large number of animals in the Cooley Peninsula, near the source of the outbreak. This prompt action by the Minister at the time and extensive culling in the area around the infected premises resulted in the successful control of the disease, which, if it had spread, would have caused incalculable damage to Irish agriculture.

Many businesses across the economy were adversely affected by this episode. Farmers who lost stock due to depopulation were compensated for their losses by means of a payment under section 17 of the Diseases of Animals Act 1966.In order to estimate the value of the stock, the Department, at the time, relied on the services of an expert independent valuer. A number of farmers subsequently brought a legal challenge, seeking additional compensation from the State. That litigation concluded in the Supreme Court in 2014, and the issue of compensation was remitted back to the High Court for further assessment. No further progress was made on these cases until 2022, when these farmers withdrew the remaining litigation from the High Court. The Department settled these cases on a without admission of liability basis. This was on the basis that the settlement would finally resolve all active, outstanding Cooley farmer cases, and was not based on the State applying an uplift to all farmers who received compensation for foot and mouth disease in 2001. Had such an outcome been contemplated, it is likely that the Department could not have settled these cases on such terms, and in the manner it did.

The foot and mouth outbreak, which occurred more than 22 years ago, had a really significant impact on many sectors right across the economy, and especially agriculture. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine considers that flock owners were appropriately compensated financially for their losses at the time. The compensation made to farmers in 2001 was clearly understood by the recipients to be a full and final settlement of any losses which they had suffered as a consequence of the depopulation. This is a matter which the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine regards as being concluded, and it can see no legal basis to reopen the issue.

Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
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The crux of the issue is whether the Minister of State is happy with that two-tier compensation process. The Department states that the owners were appropriately compensated, but clearly that is not the case. There have been letters, correspondence and a legal case to state and highlight that farmers were not happy with the outcomes of what happened back then. I have to really stress that not one penny was spared by the Government at the time. Any money which was needed for overtime, accommodation or checkpoint security was given, and the only ones who were left wanting were the people who lost their livelihoods. Everything else was paid for. An Garda Síochána and the Army were all paid for. However, the generations of livestock which was brought up over hundreds of years was lost. The farmers were the only ones who were not happy with this situation.

It is a deplorable situation where we now have a two-tier compensation package. Surely the Department, in good faith, in recognition of the importance of the agriculture industry to this country, and the importance of goodwill from our farmers towards our Department, that there is a re-evaluation and a reopening of this case. There are farmers who have received less than others. Desperate hurt happened 22 years ago, and that hurt is continuing, and when farmers are receiving more than others, that is wrong and an injustice which the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine should not stand over.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I assure the Senator that I understand the gravity of the picture she has painted. I, and everyone in the farming community, will not quickly forget the events during the foot and mouth crisis. It is estimated that the culling within the Cooley Peninsula impacted 48,744 sheep, 166 goats, 1,123 cattle, 2,908 pigs and 280 deer. Outside the Cooley Peninsula, it is estimated that 3,826 sheep and 207 cattle were also culled. Those numbers paint a very clear picture of how the Cooley Peninsula and Louth farmers in particular were really significantly impacted.

All sectors of society were involved in containing the spread of the disease, including the State veterinary services, operating with the assistance of the personnel and equipment resources of many Departments, private industry and private veterinary practitioners, with the co-operation of the farming community and the general public. The farmers of Louth played a particularly important role, and that is something which is recognised.

I outlined my Department's position in my initial response, but I take on board the points which the Senator has raised today, and I will bring them to back to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, and highlight them with him.