The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has described new TB proposals by the Department of Agriculture and the manner in which they were presented as “shambolic”.The
proposals, including herds with multiple TB reactors being unable to sell cows freely for three years after being deemed clear of the disease, were put to the TB forum meeting on Wednesday and have drawn major concern from farm organisations.
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has described new TB proposals by the Department of Agriculture and the manner in which they were presented as “shambolic”.
The proposals, including herds with multiple TB reactors being unable to sell cows freely for three years after being deemed clear of the disease, were put to the TB forum meeting on Wednesday and have drawn major concern from farm organisations.
IFA animal health chair TJ Maher said that the Department flashed up 'over 25 half-baked, poorly thought-out proposals with no details'.
“The Department didn’t circulate their ‘proposals’ to stakeholders on the day, instead choosing to flash them up on a screen halfway through the meeting and seemed unsure themselves as to what they actually were proposing,” he said.
“It was a shambolic approach to such a serious issue for farmers, our families and our livelihoods.
“It was a cocktail of reduced compensation, more and prolonged restrictions on farmers and blacklisting of farmers through compulsory herd categorisation.”
Forum
The IFA has condemned the Department’s plans, saying that it is “effectively blaming farmers for the current TB situation”.
The association put forward proposals to address aspects of the disease control measures in the TB programme at the meeting, which included 13 points about how these should be implemented at farm level.
Maher said that the current TB crisis is a result of ”flawed policy decisions” in the past by the Department and its failure to adequately resource and implement the programme.
“Minister [for Agriculture Martin] Heydon needs to grab hold of this issue. He can start by publishing the proposals his officials put forward, along with the rationale on how they will reduce the levels and spread of TB and outline the funding allocation he intends to make to support their impact on farms,” added Maher.
“Unless we see a significant change in approach from the Department of Agriculture in this process, we have to question both the purpose and effectiveness of the TB forum.”
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