Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 October 2026
10. Deputy Edward Timmins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the strategy for selecting cattle herds to be tested for TB given recent reports that large numbers of herds have not been tested in over two years. [71014/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraWhat is the strategy for selecting cattle herds to be tested for TB given recent reports that large numbers of herds have not been tested in over two years. Before the Minister answers I would just like to say that I welcome the announcement that the compensation limit will be increased from €3,000 to €3,500 per animal for TB.
I thank Deputy Timmins. For farmers in Wicklow and beyond - and I live very close to the Wicklow border - I know the scourge of bovine TB and the impact and challenges it has. I have been able to implement the biggest step change in approach in the 75 years that bovine TB has been on this island. My new bovine TB action plan is working and this is being proven by the figures. There is a 10% reduction in the number of farm families impacted by having restricted herds and having reactors compared to this time last year. This is over 500 farms that are not locked up right now because of the progress of this plan. I thank farmers for their engagement and the farm organisations which I engaged with for a long time last year over bringing about these changes. I know change is not easy for anybody but farmers have adopted that. They have worked on it, as well as the private veterinary practitioners and my own officials and the vets in our regional veterinary offices. Working together we really are delivering and it is a great example of where a plan can work. Even by reducing the need of funding, it is still a really heavy draw on my budget with €142 million needed for next year for the TB plan. It is, however, down from €158 million last year. That allowed me to be able to move on the compensation ceilings, which I really wanted to do, with a 16% increase in the ceilings bringing the compensation cap to €3,500.
The Deputy raised the point about testing and beyond. Under EU and national legislation relating to bovine TB testing, all animals on a holding, with the exception of calves under six weeks old, must be subject to routine tuberculin testing on an annual basis. These rules are implemented under the TB programme. There are some instances were herds do not complete a herd test, including where herds reduce their stock to zero to send their herds to slaughter, where a new herd number has been issued, or where herd owners do not comply with bovine TB testing requirements. In many instances, that is where we have existing herd numbers that do not actually have any animals in the stock. Where people do have them they have to be tested annually.
The Minister will know, as he alluded to, that I come from west Wicklow which is an area that has the highest incidence of TB in the country. I welcome the progress being made but we still have a long way to go. TB has caused huge financial and mental pressures on many farmers. Measures on cattle testing are good but we need to address the wildlife spread.
This issue is particularly acute in Wicklow, where deer are a key vector of TB transmission. It should be mandatory for all deer to be tagged when shot and that all deer be sampled and tested for TB.
Many of those deer run down from Wicklow into County Kildare. I am all too aware of the challenges they present. In many parts of the country, farmers talk about the role badgers play in spreading the disease. In Wicklow and some other parts, it is deer that are the big challenge. That is why we have 16 deer management units, one of which is in Wicklow, which are helping us to address the challenges associated with deer. I only have so many resources and this is taking up a huge number of them. My focus and that of my Department is on testing the cattle and reducing the incidence of disease.
There is plenty of bovine TB in wildlife like deer and badgers, which are vectors for transmission. It stands to reason that if the disease is in a herd, it will be in the wildlife as well, and vice versa. There is that crossover. As part of the new plan, I introduced biodiversity measures, which will make a really significant difference. The biggest impact a farmer can have is by separating cattle away from a badger sett and stopping the animals from interacting with each other. Cattle are nosey and will move around to have a look at things. When they stick their nose down the latrine, there is every chance they will pick up bovine TB there. Significant measures are being taken in this regard, alongside the work of the deer management units.
I was just about to refer to badgers. This morning, I spoke to a man who has been a vet in west Wicklow for more than 40 years. Most of the TB cases he has encountered have been linked to badgers. They are not as visible as deer and, therefore, do not get the same level of attention.
Will the Minister ensure the TB scourge is constantly monitored and that actions are taken to address it? We must do all in our power to reduce what is a massive problem in County Wicklow.
One of the key drivers of bovine TB is cattle-to-cattle transmission. A challenge the new plan is addressing is the residual TB that was going undetected. Our biggest challenge with bovine TB is that we do not have a single test that is 100% foolproof. The annual skin testing has an 80% efficacy rate, which means that one in five animals that tests negative is actually positive and will be missed. When young breeding heifers were sold on from high-risk herds to low-risk herds, it created a spreading of the disease in a very significant way. That is why we brought in the risk categorisations for animals, which will make a very big difference. We are giving a pathway out for farmers who have reactors, some of whom are in a perpetual cycle of negative tests. In addition, we want farmers whose herds are free of disease to have more confidence that they can remain free of it.
The role of wildlife is in the mix but the cattle-to-cattle transmission is very significant. Farmers tend to blame wildlife but the issue is much broader than that. My 30-point bovine TB plan is working. It is addressing all elements of the problem based on science.
