Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 210: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food further to Parliamentary Question No. 360 of 2 October 2007, the reason the Irish definition of a restricted holding under article 12 of the Bovine Tuberculosis (Attestation of the State and General Provisions) Order 1989 (S.I. No. 308 of 1989) fail to make a distinction between the suspension of the official health status and the actual withdrawal of the official health status for TB and brucellosis purposes as required by Council directive 64/432/EEC annex A thereof; the further reason the DVO waited until January 2007 to arrange to carry out the herd tests despite the herd owners agreement and reminder letters to the DVO calling upon her Department to ensure the tests were carried out; the location where is it specifically required as a matter of EC or community law, that a second clear test is required having regard to the herds official health history which has been free of TB and brucellosis for at least six years including the most recent clear herd tests completed on 5 January 2007; the reason it appears that the DVO was only aware of the test results report in January 2007 but not aware until end of July 2007 that the same veterinary inspector, who carried out the tests at the directions of her Department, had also signed and endorsed all the identity cards surrendered to them certifying that each animal had passed the test and the herd as far as they were concerned was free of TB and brucellosis, thus satisfying the 12 month testing requirement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27744/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The position is that paragraph 1 (2) of Annex A to EU Directive 64/432 provides that a bovine herd will retain officially tuberculosis-free status if inter alia all animals on the holding, with the exception of calves under six weeks old which were born in the holding, are subjected to routine tuberculin testing at yearly intervals. The annual herd testing of bovine herds in Ireland represents yearly routine testing.

Annex A to the EU Directive also provides that the official TB free status of a herd is to be suspended or withdrawn if certain conditions are not met. Some of the conditions for suspension and withdrawal are similar and, in particular, the competent authority has the option of suspending or withdrawing disease free status if the conditions set out in paragraph 1(2) of the Annex are no longer fulfilled. These conditions include the annual herd test. The Annex also provides that the competent authority may withdraw disease free status from a herd for any other reasons considered necessary for the purpose of controlling bovine tuberculosis. It also provides for the restriction of animals under both status withdrawn and status suspended circumstances.

With regard to the restoration of official TB free status, paragraph 1 of Annex A sets out the conditions for achieving officially tuberculosis-free status. These include the requirement that all the bovine animals over six weeks old have reacted negatively to at least two official intradermal tuberculin tests carried out in accordance with Annex B, the first six months after the elimination of any infection from the herd and the second six months later. In view of the nature of the disease and the fact that the herd in question had not been tested for 27 months and its status was unknown, my Department was unable to assume that the herd was disease free following the tests carried out in January 2007 and had no option but to require compliance with the requirement in paragraph 1 to the Annex before the disease free status of the herd could again be established. These requirements are implemented by administrative procedures.

With regard to the Bovine Tuberculosis (Attestation of the State and General Provisions) Orders, 1989 Order, I should point out that this Order is primarily intended to implement the TB disease eradication programme and goes well beyond the provisions of Directive 64/432/EEC, which sets down the rules governing intra-community trade. Article 12 of this Order provides that, where there has been a failure to comply with a provision of the 1966 Diseases of Animals Act or of the Order, including failure to test as required by the issuing of a 14 day notice by my Department, the holding shall be declared to be a restricted holding. A restriction in Irish legislation covers status suspended and status withdrawn. As indicated in my reply to Questions 39881/06 and 39882/06 on 23 November 2006 and Question 21506/07 on 2 October 2007, the holding relating to the herdowner referred to was restricted in October 2005 because of the repeated failure of the herdowner to comply with my Department's notices to have the annual herd test for TB and Brucellosis carried out on his herd.

With regard to de-restriction, the TB Order provides in Article 12 (5) that, where a veterinary inspector is satisfied that the animals on a holding are free from bovine tuberculosis, the holding shall cease to be a restricted holding. On the issue of the returned animal passports, I have already explained the position in my previous reply to Question 21506/07 but would add that the person concerned had not been notified that his holding had been de-restricted.

With regard to the reference to the communications made by the person concerned to the DVO regarding his agreement to test, the position is that under the current arrangements that have been in place since 1996, the onus is on herdowner to arrange with and pay his own private veterinary practitioner for his annual herd test. In the interests of disease control, because of the herdowner's persistent refusal to test over a period of in excess of two years, my Department arranged for a veterinary inspector to test the herd in January 2007.