Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 288: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps she is taking to ensure that cattle passports are returned to farmers in a shorter timescale than at present following a herd test; if her attention has been drawn to the hardship such a delay causes farmers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33783/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Herd tests are for the most part arranged by farmers with their veterinary practitioners. A keeper must surrender all passports, including any surplus passports, to the testing veterinary surgeon at the commencement of the test. If all of the animals tested are properly identified and give a clear (negative) result, the corresponding passports are certified by the veterinarian and returned to the keeper. However, the PVP is required to submit any surplus, complete (full) and incorrect passports to the DVO. On receipt the DVO will arrange where appropriate for replacement passports to issue promptly to the keeper. If any animal gives a positive reaction to the test, the veterinarian will forward all passports to the DVO which will hold them until the herd is clear. In that case, the passports are returned, following the clear test result, to the private veterinary practitioner who certifies and returns them to the keeper. Where an animal gives an inconclusive reactor result, in general, the passport for the inconclusive animal is retained by the DVO and the remaining passports are returned to the private veterinary practitioner to be certified and returned to the farmer.

Animals that are presented for test, but which are not properly tagged and registered, have to be temporarily tagged/identified in the course of the test. In such cases, the procedure is that all passports are retained and the keeper is required to properly tag the unidentified animal(s) and to complete and submit form ER 96 correlating those unidentified animals. In these cases, passports will not be returned to keepers until that form has been submitted to and processed satisfactorily by my Department's DVO. I am not aware of any specific complaints concerning delays in the return of passports.

For TB, the herd test results are, in general, available on the day of completion of the test while Brucellosis test results are provided when they become available from the Laboratory. Once clear test results are available, there is no reason why private veterinary practitioners should delay returning the passports and as farmers pay the veterinarians for most herd tests, there is no reason why they cannot make arrangements to ensure that this is the case.

In other circumstances, passports are returned as soon as possible after completion of clearance or other tests and/or where animal identification issues have been satisfactorily dealt with.