Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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136. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the action his Department is taking to ensure the TB eradication programme is fully resourced, in view of staff shortages in regional offices which in turn leaves staff unable to carry out thorough investigations in to the cause of breakdowns and to implement a wildlife programme around all TB breakdowns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36358/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Bovine TB is a challenging disease to control and eradicate. In recent years, bovine TB (bTB) levels have continued to deteriorate.

Herd incidence has increased from 4.31% in 2022 to 6.04% in 2024, resulting in a 36% increase in the number of herds restricted between 2022 and 2024. As of 22^nd June 2025, over a 12 month period we had a herd incidence of 6.43 % with over 43,455 reactors. This disease is having an impact on our farmers and their families both financially and emotionally throughout rural Ireland.

My Department is committed to ensuring that a workforce is in place to meet its priority business needs. One of the actions in the Programme for Government on the National TB Eradication Strategy is to ensure appropriate staffing of the Wildlife Control Programme and resource regional veterinary offices to carry out this vital work.

To achieve this, workforce planning is utilised in identifying and addressing the needs for all our locations including our network of Regional Veterinary Offices.

All critical staffing vacancies are filled as soon as possible when suitable candidates become available, considering the balance of needs and resources across my Department. Recruitment is currently underway in my Department to fill vacancies through the standard recruitment mechanisms and my Department aims to minimise any delays in finalising assignments.