Vets are in line to receive an extra €2m for carrying out TB testing on farms under a new deal agreed with the Department of Agriculture.

The extra funding is one of a number of proposals which will see an extra €12.8m paid to vets over the coming years.

Correspondence to Veterinary Ireland members seen by the Irish Farmers Journal outlines that the proposals are to “acknowledge the significant administrative, time and financial burden that will be forced upon veterinary practices to comply with the introduction” of the new National Veterinary Prescription System (NVPS).

Soft introduction

The correspondence also points to a soft introduction of the new system, to take place over a number of months.

New funding includes the rollout of a €7.7m Targeted Advisor Service on Animal Health (TASAH) programme for 2025, with the possibility of the same funding in 2026 and 2027, a €1.5m targeted herd or flock-based surveillance programme in 2025, along with an increase in TB testing charges carried out on behalf of the State.

Engage

This equates to an extra €5.7m to vets in the next three years.

The Department also plans to engage with Veterinary Ireland on involving vets in gamma interferon blood sampling in TB restricted herds.

The Department has indicated that when the current €3m capital investment programme ends in 2025, it will look at funding if there is a business need for further support.

An emergency meeting of Veterinary Ireland, the main umbrella body for vets in Ireland, took place on Thursday 5 December in Portlaoise in relation to proposals received from the Department aimed at securing agreement on a rollout of the new system.

Many vets feel they have been left in the dark about the new proposals, with very little communication coming forth from representative bodies or the Department on how the new system will work.

Vets feel it’s unfair that they will take on the financial burden of installing the new system and are aggrieved at the huge amount of extra time the new system will take to operate from a veterinary administration point of view.

The meeting was described as tense and fraught by some of those that attended, with some vets leaving before the meeting was over.