Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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267. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of tests for bovine brucellosis for the years 2011 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44015/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The number of tests for the years in question are contained in the following table.

Ireland achieved Officially Brucellosis Free Status in 2009 and my Department has been gradually scaling down testing since then. In addition, there has been no case of Brucellosis on the entire island of Ireland since March 2012 and, as the Deputy might recall, I, along with the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland, Ms Michelle O’Neill, announced the ending of pre-movement Brucellosis testing on both sides of the Border with effect from 28 September 2015. This means that routine on-farm brucellosis testing is no longer required in the State. This is a major landmark in the history of disease eradication in Ireland and illustrates what can be achieved when all concerned cooperate in delivering an effective eradication programme. My Department has estimated that, compared to the position prior to the scaling down of testing in 2009, the saving to farmers in terms of testing costs amounts to about €15m per annum.

However, it is vital that we identify and prevent any outbreak of this diseaseand, in this regard, my Department will continue to conduct surveillance testing on cows slaughtered at meat plants. It is also important that, notwithstanding the removal of the legislative requirement to test, farmers should ensure that they have appropriate and proportionate bio-security arrangements in place with regard to animals introduced into their herds in order to protect the health of their own herd and indeed that of their neighbours from infectious and contagious disease.