Victor Boyhan Presses Department on Urgent TB Choices and Timelines

Thank you very much. Firstly, I want to welcome Mr. Michael Cronin from the chair of the TV Forum and, of course, Mr. O'Mahony from the Department of Agriculture. We've read your papers. We have them in front of us, so we've had time to tease them out. If you might be forgiven, Mr. Cronin, I'm going to just concentrate on one or two key questions to Mr. O'Mahony from the Department, and I suppose there are only two key takeaways from your statement here before us today, and I'm only concentrating on your statement rather than suggestions or speculation or media commentary or other commentary about TB. So, to quote you, in your statement you say, and I think this is interesting in itself, the Minister recognised the economic and emotional burden of TB on farmers, their families and the impact on the output of the agri-food sector with lost production at farm and processor level and our rural economic accept the need for urgent and decisive action. Well, that's to be welcomed because it has a huge emotional impact on people and families and income and a whole range of issues, and I think it's important that that's been put on the public record now. So, we need urgent, decisive action, is what you're quoted in this report in terms of the Minister. So, I think we need to see timelines around that. So, I want to leave that with you. The second point is the overall cost to the Exchequer, and I think this is an interesting point. The overall cost to the Exchequer of the TB programme, excluding staff costs, has increased from full-year costs of $57 million in 2023 to over $100 million in 2024, and is on track to increase further in 2025. Now, we know a lot of that is driven by the cost of the compensation package, but I think they're sort of awakening figures, but at the end of the day, compensation has to be compensation, and there has to be acknowledgement of everyone's responsibility, and I just think that's an important point to put on the record here. I suppose the most alarming, or the only thing that jumped off this page really for me was, and I quote again from the extract of your statement placed before this committee here today, and I quote, the new proposals once agreed set out how the Department stakeholders will continue to engage on the issues impacting on TB levels in Ireland, which, quote, which will involve some difficult choices. My simple one question to you, please outline what you have in mind there. You clearly committed those words to paper. What are you thinking about, or what is the Department's thoughts in relation to this statement, you know, that some difficult choices will have to be made? Can you share that with the committee? Thank you, Senator. Just, and I will answer your question, but just in relation to the cost, I think the quickest way we can reduce the cost of the exchequer is to drive down disease levels. As you said, the biggest driver of compensation is reactor animals. So, in the choices referred to in terms of going forward, they are targeting reducing disease levels, which will impact not just the cost of the exchequer, but as you say, the economic impact of our economies, and also the emotional impact that our staff on the ground see every day, when they're dealing with farmers, who are unfortunate to have a TB breakdown. In relation to the choices, or what's going to be contained in this plan, which the Minister will be, hopefully, he's engaged significantly with farm organisations over the last number of weeks, including significant face-to-face engagement with them. And he listened to both in terms of the farmer organisation and other stakeholder feedback on those particular days, and he's now reflecting and considering in terms of moving forward with proposals. So, with those considerations are still ongoing, I think it's fair to say in terms of the concentration of the measures, including supporting farmers who are free of TB to continue to be TB-free, through supporting on-farm biosecurity actions and behaviours that they can engage in, and also in terms of herds that are currently restricted to allow them to see a path outwards, in terms of just looking again at how we test, how we use TB testing on-farm to target residual infection, because we're finding that this residual infection that essentially is left over after a test, we're seeing that crop up in future repeated breakdowns. Now, how that manifests itself in terms of on-farm controls and the specifics of it, the Minister is still considering those, but they are the key areas, and also the introduction of, so that essentially farmers aren't put in a position where they go out to buy animals that they inadvertently do no fault of their own buying an animal that is considered to be at a higher risk of introducing TB than others. I'm conscious of time, and my key question is timelines, so what is the timeline for this? Because, you know, time is not on our side, so what are the timelines you have in mind, or the Minister has in mind, can you share them with the Commission? The timelines is, in essence, as soon as possible. So when? What's the time indicator? Until those measures are actually fully agreed and the Minister lays them out, it wouldn't be possible to put a timeline until that, because the final decisions aren't made in relation to that. But it is very much intentioned that these are implemented, because as you say yourself, time is critical. It's of the essence here. So it's not about launching a series of measures and then not having a plan behind that, but until those measures are fully agreed, but it is very much envisaged that the timeline behind those measures would be put in place as soon as practical. It will require some IT work within the department, but that would be treated as a priority. Okay,