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The IFA has warned the Department of Agriculture that TB eradication cannot be achieved without significant investment from the Department.
Addressing the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture on Tuesday 1 October, IFA president Joe Healy said that farmers contributed €55m each year to the programme and, in return, farmers only received €18.087m in compensation for animal and production losses and maintenance costs.
He said that the support from farmers shouldn’t be taken for granted and it couldn’t be achieved “by further increasing the already enormous and disproportionate cost burden on farmers”.
TB forum has failed
His views were echoed by IFA animal health chair Pat Farrell, who said the TB forum had failed farmers by refusing to recognise and deal with the impact of TB on farmers and their families.
“Clearly, protecting the 97% of herds that are free from TB annually must be the priority.
"However, attempting to achieve this by ignoring and further compounding the impact on the 3% of farmers who, through no fault of their own, experience TB breakdowns is a flawed and unacceptable policy position,” the IFA said.
Stagnation
“The main contributing factors identified by the Department of Agriculture to the current stagnation of progress towards eradication can be addressed in a more practical and effective way that takes account of the farming dynamic in Ireland and the critical importance of animal movements and live exports.”
The IFA concluded by saying that part of the solution to this was “up-front investment” from the Government in the short term.
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