Carol Nolan condemns proposed TB herd history risk reports

I wish to begin by thanking you for selecting this vitally important issue here today for discussion and I also want to wish Deputy Hayden every success in his new role which is such an important role now more than ever in terms of rural Ireland and the rural economy so I wish you all the best Minister as you are aware the proposal to implement a new TB herd history risk statement and report system has generated a furious response from farmers all across this state but I'm particularly aware of it in Leash Offaly and indeed among the farming organisations. I feel myself that the proposal is totally unacceptable and it's my understanding that the Department of Agriculture took action on this issue before it was agreed by the TB Forum and it's my understanding that this report was to be agreed by the TB Forum before any action was to be taken and I know that there is great frustration and indeed anger over that situation. There is significant concern that this new system has the potential to seriously devalue herds with no protection afforded to farmers. In a recent PQ reply to me on this matter by Minister McConnell Oak, Minister McConnell Oak said that the reports present TB risk information in a user-friendly detailed and practical form. The Minister also made the point that the development of herd risk categories that are simple, clear and convey sufficient information to enable farmers to make the decisions appropriate to their situation. But Minister, there is nothing simple or clear about how this matter has been handled to date and indeed there is, as I said to you, much frustration. It's not acceptable and I do hope that this will be taken off the table. It's only right that it should be. If there was consensus and indeed if it was an appropriate way to be handling the TB issue and indeed handling the whole situation, it would not have generated the outright level of hostility that it has generated. Indeed, indeed the IFA's animal health chairperson Pat Farrell said that the letters are a ridiculous and weak response to the dramatic deterioration in TB levels in herds. Farmers are being told in these letters that if they bring unsold animals back from the mart they cannot consider the herd a closed herd. But as the ICSA have pointed out, we have not seen any scientific research to underpin this and worse it will be seen as an assault on the mart trade. What is also clear is that farmers will continue to bear the disproportionate financial burden for the eradication of TB when we know that the real area of difficulty in terms of the source of disease is within the wildlife population and specifically the badger population. I am aware that there are EU provisions such as the habitats directive which protect badgers and wildlife but I also understand that there are derogations to the provisions on species protections which are permitted in circumstances aimed at preventing serious damage to livestock. We need to give these derogations far more serious attention because there is clearly a lack of balance between production of herds and the unwillingness to engage in proportionate levels of badger culling where required. Only this week I received many reports from my own County of Offaly where there are issues of TB and indeed livestock affected. Minister, my thought and view on this is that there should be more ongoing assessments carried out by the Department of Agriculture in areas where there is an ongoing problem with TB. Then there should be a targeted response, a follow-up and that response can be the culling of badgers or deer as it may be in these particular areas. Thank you very much Deputy Minister. Thanks very much for the Deputy for raising this really important point and for your kind sentiments at the start and thank you Kean Corley for that too. I look forward to carrying out my duties to the very best of my ability. The herd test history statements and reports issued to all cattle herd owners is viewed as just one of a number of measures that will help herd owners to reduce the risk of bovine TB in their herds. The Bovine TB Forum interim report identified the need to provide more effective information to farmers to help them to reduce the risk of TB in their herd and advocated for the development of herd risk categories that can clearly convey sufficient information to enable farmers to make the decisions appropriate to their situation. Against this background the Department developed individualised reports that provide a simplified TB herd risk category for farmers with herd specific advice on how to reduce the risk of TB. I just want to reassure the Deputy that I completely understand the frustration that there is by the farm organisations that have attended TB Forum. I've consulted with them and talked to them. But you know the individualised reports were never just seen as if this was to be the panacea to fix everything. It's one part of an overall much wider approach that will only work in partnership between farmers and the farmers organisations and my department and the wider bodies that are involved. That's why I welcome the TB Forum being reformed and got back together next week. Minister McConnell will attend that on October 1st and I think we can discuss between the farmers and my department all of the key issues that we have to address. But this report was only one part of that. There is a large and robust body of scientific evidence on bovine TB and this scientific evidence underpins the advice contained in the herd history statement. Furthermore, the content of the statement is consistent with the advice that has been provided by my department for several years in newsletters, videos, leaflets and other media. Farmers have already provided information in relation to their TB risk, but this new report presents it in a clearer, more detailed way. Following many successful years of reducing bovine TB levels to the benefit of Irish farmers, there has been a concerning incremental increase in the disease since 2016. This has continued in 2020 with further increases in herd incidents and reactor numbers observed. Herd incidents on a 12-month rolling basis has breached 4% for the first time since 2012 and reactor numbers have exceeded 20,000, the highest number since 2011. These trends highlight the need for urgent action by all stakeholders to manage the risk more effectively across all transmission routes. It is this need for the action that is my department's primary motivation in issuing the herd history statements. While immediate trends are disappointing and worrying, great progress has been made over the past decade. During 2009, 5,860 herds were subject to restrictions whilst the number in 2019 was 4,060. That is a significant reduction that does need to be recognised. I make the point again that it is only by working together have we made that progress before and that we can do so again. That is where the meeting of the TB Forum next week will be so important. My department remains committed to reducing TB in Ireland as demonstrated by the recent sanctioning of an additional 16 officers to assist the TB programme. Attaining TB-free status remains critical from a farm family profitability and sustainability perspective and from a trade perspective at a national and international level. I am acutely conscious that every TB restriction represents a significant challenge to the farm family concerned. It is a deep regret of mine that today over 2,700 herds are currently restricted, which represents a 20% increase on the same time last year. We want to work with all stakeholders in ensuring fewer herd owners experience the challenges associated with the TB restriction and that we all work purposefully towards eradication of this disease, thus eliminating this ongoing cost on farmers and on the State. Thank you. Margaret, I thank you for your comprehensive response. The fact of the matter is that there was a blatant lack of consultation, there was a blatant lack of agreement on this issue and the TB Forum was undermined. And what needs to happen is that the proposal, which was heavy handed, the Department of Agriculture were heavy handed in this approach. That needs to be taken off the table now. I welcome the fact that you said that you hope to engage with all stakeholders and that there needs to be engagement with all stakeholders. But the whole problem with this is that there was not meaningful and proper engagement with stakeholders. There were actions taken that were heavy handed. What needs to happen is that it needs to be reversed and we need to go back to the TB Forum and put actions in place that are agreeable to everybody and that will not devalue herds or cause more hardship for farming families across this State. It has not got the confidence and indeed it has not instilled confidence in farming organisations or farmers themselves, so therefore take it off the table immediately. What I want to also say to you, Minister, is that the current eradication programme's costs provided by the Department are just over £90 million per annum. As I understand it, this does not include enormous labour costs associated with the TB programme for farmers, which the IFA estimates at a further £20 million annually. Irish farmers contribute a total of £55 million every year to the TB programme, £27 million in annual TB testing costs, in excess of £7 million in disease levies and £20 million in labour. When facilitating the testing of more than £9 million animal tests a year and implementing the disinfection protocols following a disease outbreak, despite this massive contribution by farmers and it is always the farmers that bear the heaviest burden, there is a clear sense that they are being shafted by this new system and that is why I want to emphasise to you again that it needs to be taken off the table. Instead of assisting farmers, it is penalising them and it is making their lives much more difficult, much more costly and is creating enormous potential for reputational damage around herd categorisations. I am pleading with you here Minister today to commit to meaningful consultations with farmers and indeed my own rural independent group to stop the rollout of the system before it does immeasurable harm to farmers at a time when they can least afford it. Thank you Minister Hayden. Thank you. I think I just need to clarify with you Deputy that you call it a system and you call it a proposal, it is not a system, it is not a proposal, it is information. It is information that has been distilled to farmers previously and that now has been distilled in a more clear way, given very clear identification as to the risk. One key element for farmers in making decisions they make is that farmers make decisions every year in terms of what stock they keep and what stock they cull in relation to bringing in new stock and updating their herd. It is important that farmers have clear access to all of that information when they are doing that. You talk about the financial burden, you are dead right, the financial burden is really significant to farmers because of TB in general. The best way we can ease that burden is to get the trajectory back in the right direction, which unfortunately the last couple of years has been going in the wrong direction, and ultimately work towards its eradication by 2030, which is a real determination of my department, of me, Minister McConnell, Logan and all of the team, as it is of the farmers and the farmer organisations. I believe that is achievable. It will only be achieved by working together. We see the reducing level of support there has been from the EU in relation to this disease control because of the fact that our trajectory has been going the wrong direction. So if we all work together and get this back and the figures go in the right direction and making more progress on this, then that will benefit everybody financially ultimately to the point where we can eradicate this. I also say this wearing my hat as Minister with Responsibility for New Market Development. I see the fact that we have TB status in this country as an impediment to us in terms of accessing new markets and expanding the markets we have. That is bad for farmers as well. It is bad for the overall industry because it does restrict us in that regard. So, you know, I would say I was a school guy back in the day when we had a reactor at home and thankfully it was a long time ago. But I remember the devastation of it. It is an awful thing and that is why we have to work with farmers. It is an awful thing for those in that position. This letter and this report was never seen as just one part of an approach to that. We will work with farmers closely. We want to eradicate this disease and we will only do that by all working together. We're talking together.