Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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34. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will remove the 10% threshold for compensation for farmers with tuberculosis reactors; if he will remove the prohibition on purchasing into restricting holdings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34205/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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There is a very comprehensive range of compensation measures provided by my Department to herdowners in the event of an outbreak of bovine TB in their herd. The main compensation scheme for these farmers is the On-Farm Market Valuation Scheme, which provides for full compensation, based on current “Market Value”, for the direct losses incurred by farmers arising from the removal of cattle as reactors. In addition to these valuation payments, herdowners who experience a disease breakdown may also qualify for compensation, for consequential losses, under the Income Supplement, Depopulation or Hardship Grant Schemes, subject to the terms and conditions applying in each case. Payments under these schemes are designed to compensate herdowners for income losses or additional costs incurred by farmers who have animals removed as reactors and whose herds are restricted. In relation specifically to the Income Supplement Scheme, a farmer must lose in excess of 10% of his animals to TB before payment can be considered.

Total expenditure on compensation paid to farmers in 2014 under the TB eradication scheme amounted to €15.2m. My officials are currently engaged in a review of these schemes and I will be making an announcement shortly in relation to this matter.

With regard to the restrictions on buying further animals into a TB restricted herd, the position is that these restrictions derive from EU legislation governing bovine TB eradication programmes. Article 17 of Council Directive 78/52 EEC provides that a herd in which bovine TB is confirmed may not be restocked until after the cattle identified as reactors are slaughtered and all cattle, over six weeks old, remaining in the herd have passed one official tuberculosis test. Once a herd passes such a test, it may be restocked under permit from the Regional Veterinary Office. Given that this requirement derives from binding EU legislation, it is not open to my Department to depart from it.