My Department has contingency plans in place to deal with disease threats and outbreaks including bluetongue. These plans are based on existing EU legislation and experience from outbreaks in Europe and Great Britain, and aim to mitigate the risk of disease introduction into Ireland and to control and/or eradicate the disease quickly if outbreaks occur. My Department is constantly reviewing, refining and updating our various contingency plans and arrangements based on new information, and ensuring that we have all of the necessary measures in place and tools available to us to deal with any suspect or outbreak of bluetongue.