Galway IFA not impressed by Agri Department’s proposals for TB review

IFA Animal Health Chair TJ Maher said the proposals put to the TB Forum meeting by the Department of Agriculture and the manner in which they were presented was shambolic.

“The Department flashed up over 25 half-baked, poorly thought-out proposals with no details. This was in stark contrast to the detailed submission made by the IFA a month earlier,” he said.

“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. It was a shambolic approach to such a serious issue for farmers, our families and our livelihoods,” he said.

“What the Dept has set out to resolve the TB issues consists primarily of passing the buck and effectively blaming farmers for the current TB situation. It was a cocktail of reduced compensation; more and prolonged restrictions on farmers; and blacklisting of farmers through compulsory herd categorisation,” he said.

Galway IFA Animal Health rep Maura Canning said the current TB crisis is a direct result of flawed policy decisions in the past by the Department of Agriculture and their complete failure to adequately resource and consistently implement the programme.

She said the IFA put forward a comprehensive set of proposals to address all aspects of the disease control measures in the TB programme at the meeting, which included 13 key points and details of how these should be implemented at farm level.

TJ Maher said the disease is crippling farmers and accused the Minister of standing over his officials throwing out proposals that will only serve to increase the burden of the disease on farms.

“Minister 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,” remarked 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,” he concluded.