Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a calf has BVD, if there is any compensation for that calf; if the mother of a calf who has BVD is proven to have BVD herself is there any compensation for having to send that cow to the factory; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9402/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The provision of funding for compensation in the context of the compulsory phase of the BVD programme must be placed in the context of the economic benefits accruing to farmers arising from the eradication of this disease and, particularly, the short payback time involved for individual farmers as well as the scarce budgetary resources available to my Department. It has been estimated that the overall benefit for the eradication of this disease is beneficial to farmers. I should also emphasise that the strategy of my Department is to concentrate its scarce resources in continuing to support Animal Health Ireland in its ongoing work in establishing control programmes for non-regulated diseases of livestock in Ireland.