Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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158. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if any compensation will be payable to a person (details supplied) whose herd was locked up for ten weeks awaiting the results of tests carried out on an animal in the herd; the reason for the delay in this case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25248/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The holding in question was restricted under the TB Eradication Scheme on 9 April 2015 following the disclosure of a suspect lesion in an animal which the herdowner had sent for slaughter. Such lesions are sent for laboratory testing to confirm or otherwise the presence of TB. In cases of this nature, the holding from which the animal originated must be restricted until a negative laboratory test result is available and will remain restricted if that test result is positive. The nature of the test is such that the process which must be followed in the laboratory to confirm a test negative result may take up to 10 weeks before the final result is available. In such cases, my Department must comply with disease eradication legislation which requires that the herd must remain restricted until a negative test is determined. In the case in question, a negative test result was available on 17 June following which the holding was derestricted on 18 June 2015. The On-Farm Market Valuation scheme is the principal compensation measure available to herdowners whose animals are removed as reactors under the TB Scheme. However, this scheme applies only to animals removed as reactor. Since the animal in question was not removed as a reactor, the herdowner is ineligible for payment under this scheme. While the holding was restricted, the herdowner was permitted to sell animals directly to slaughter.