The high incidence of bovine TB, combined with record prices for cattle, means that DAERA is currently projecting it will have to pay out £46.5m in the next financial year for TB reactor cattle.

Confirming the estimate at last Thursday’s Stormont Agriculture Committee, DAERA finance director Roger Downey said the projected spend in the current financial year to the end of March 2025, is currently £41.7m. That compares to 2019-2020, when DAERA paid out £19.5m for TB reactors.

In the next financial year, the Department is working from a baseline for TB reactor compensation of £32.3m. While DAERA has received some additional resource funding from the Stormont Executive budget announced last December, there is still a £10.6m shortfall, Downey told MLAs.

He pointed out that government has a statutory obligation to compensate farmers for TB reactors, so the Department will have to bid for additional monies throughout the next financial year to cover any funding gap.

“TB compensation is one of the few pressures where we pick up additional funding in-year. If we get anything in-year, it’s usually for TB compensation,” said Downey.

However, while there is a significant shortfall in current projections for TB compensation, it is not the only pressure facing DAERA. The Department bid for an additional £50.9m to cover resource spending in 2025-2026, but only received £15.7m in last December’s budget allocation.

“This is an extremely difficult proposed outcome for DAERA,” said Downey.

Included within the bid was £7.1m to “take forward more proactive actions to reduce the incidence of TB”. In the end, just £2m has been allocated to this particular work stream.

“There is also nothing to fund any Avian Influenza or Bluetongue outbreaks at this stage. In addition there’s a shortfall in funding of £2m to take forward the Lough Neagh action plan,” said Downey.

Just Transition

However, he did confirm that DAERA has received £12.3m for a “Just Transition Fund” to help farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Out of this fund, £5m is to go towards the new bovine genetics programme, £3.7m is to be spent on larger scale farm development projects within Tier 2 of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme and £2.8m is to go towards peatlands restoration. That leaves £0.8m for a livestock dietary emissions challenge fund.