I thank Deputy Cooney for raising what is a significant issue, not just for farmers in County Clare but also for their counterparts across the country. The straight answer to a straight question is that I do believe eradication of TB is possible and is something that can be delivered. However, there was no way it was going to be delivered by means of the trajectory we were on up until last year, when we were seeing an exponential growth in numbers of reactors and herds impacted. The definition of madness is doing t…

Budget 2026 provided an increased budget for the TB programme, with a record €157 million allocated for this reason in 2026. This will allow the TB programme to focus on driving down the disease through the implementation of measures laid out in my new bovine TB action plan. It will support and enable farm families who are currently dealing with the stress of a TB outbreak to navigate a way out of a TB restriction and protect those herds currently free from bovine TB to remain free. The objective of the new measure…

I understand the points the Deputy has made and the frustration he has expressed on behalf of his constituents. I would love not to have that ceiling in place; I would love the freedom to be able to operate outside of that. Market prices of animals continue to be monitored. However, the focus at present is on reducing the levels of disease, which will reduce the impact of bovine TB on Irish farm families and reduce the cost of the programme, which rose to over €121 million in 2025. The only reason I got sanction fo…

I thank Deputy Aird for raising the important matter of TAMS and the specific case of a constituent he has come across. TAMS provides grants to farmers to build and improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings. All investments supported by TAMS 3 must be linked to climate, environment or animal welfare. To date, almost 2,500 applications for nutrient storage investments with a proposed grant aid value of €55 million have been approved. The investments made under this measure are an im…

To answer the Deputy's question, and as I outlined in my original answer, there is provision for many of those new entrant farmers to be able to avail of TAMS in such circumstances. It is important to note that, at a high level, EU funds cannot assist in bringing a farm into legal compliance. It has to be legally compliant before it can access the funds. Where that deviates is where we have the agreed change around the increased ambition from 2028 onwards. As part of our negotiation on that, where the storage capac…

I will talk to the Deputy about the specifics of this case afterwards because it may be the farm partnership that is the impediment here. New entrants to farming who did not have any livestock the previous winter are eligible to apply for the slurry scheme on that basis. That is probably an anomaly in one way. We have no shortage of farmers applying for TAMS. We had 8,000 applications in the last tranche. I got an increase in my capital budget for TAMS of €88 million for this year, but demand is off the charts.

From that perspective, it is there for the many who do and can avail of it. On a general level, you cannot have a situation where you are applying for TAMS to make yourself legally compliant when you are not compliant. That is the challenge of it, but new entrants can do it. If it is a partnership, maybe that is the challenge on this one.

I thank the Deputy. I am aware of the financial and emotional impacts and challenges for Irish farmers, their families and rural communities presented by a bovine TB breakdown. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in bovine TB levels nationally. To address these high disease levels, I have undertaken extensive engagement with stakeholders and farm organisations to agree measures to tackle them. I launched the Bovine TB Action Plan: Addressing Bovine TB in Ireland in September. It includes five mea…

Being clear and concise is important. Change is a challenge for everybody but we had to change our approach. The approach needs to be targeted, and that is what this is. We have to recognise where the key challenge is. A reduction in bovine TB levels in breeding herds, especially in dairy herds, is a key element in driving down bovine TB levels nationally. I think of the constituency and the region that the Deputy represents, where it would be predominantly sucklers and not as much dairy. The purchase of breeding h…

The helpline is up and running and has been since the middle of April. Communication has been a key part of everything I have done here. I will counter somewhat the Deputy's point that the message is not getting through. I refer to the encouraging progress of recent months in reducing bovine TB levels. Over the 12 months to 3 May, the herd incidence was 5.42%, down from 6.29%, the number of herds restricted was down by just over 5,400, or 14.8%, and the number of reactors was over 35,400, down 15.71%. We have seen …

Ireland exported almost 458,000 metric tonnes of beef in 2025. It is an absolutely colossal figure when we think of the scale of the industry and what it is worth to our overall economy. Although the volume of exports was lower than in recent years, the total value of primary beef exports increased by €542 million, or 17%, to reach a record €3.6 billion, according to the Central Statistics Office, CSO. Whereas volumes to the UK were 6% lower in 2025 compared to 2024, the value of those shipments grew by more than €…

I welcome the removal of Brazil from the list of approved countries. It is a result of the pressure that my colleagues on the Council of Ministers and I have been bringing to bear. In January, we had a meeting with Commissioner Šefčovič, the Commissioner for trade, Commissioner Hansen, the Commissioner for agriculture, and Commissioner Várhelyi, who is responsible for animal health and welfare. We made it very clear to them, and we have always said, that the sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, food safety standards of…

The removal from the list has been done straight away. That is how that process works. It is a clear indication to the Brazilians that the standards of they have been bringing in, and that we have highlighted in terms of our concern with them, are not acceptable here. Product being found here that has traces of antibiotics and beyond is not acceptable to us and will not be into the future.

On the Deputy's question regarding the decline in the volume of beef exports to the EU and the UK, there are a few parts to this. It is a dynamic situation. Farmers vote with their feet in terms of the workload and the return they are getting for that work. Some of them change enterprises because they will get a better return for that. The increase in beef prices last year will make some farmers who had stepped back look at beef production again. I am determined to ensure that the good beef price, which increased l…

I thank the Deputy for raising a really important issue which we all take really seriously. Animal welfare is a key priority for me as Minister and for the Government. My Department has lead policy responsibility within Government for animal welfare and we take it really seriously. I am committed to the policy that animal welfare standards are vigorously applied in a fair and even-handed manner and remain committed to the continued robust enforcement of the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, which provides a moder…

I thank the Deputy. I will not fall into the trap of pitting the dog against the cat and which is more popular. I have Sammy, my collie, at home who keeps any cat away. The general public absolutely expects and demands of us the highest animal welfare standards. It is something I am passionate about. Coming from a farming background, I was raised, and I am raising my children, with the approach that if we treat animals well we will treat humans well. A society can be judged on how it deals with issues such as this.…

A big change that happened with this Government, which was laid out in the programme for Government, is that all of the various elements of dog control have been centralised from previously being across three Departments, including in the former Department of Rural and Community Development. The programme for Government committed to taking this element from that Department and bringing it back to the Department of agriculture because we have responsibility for animal welfare. Local authorities are the employers of …

I thank Deputy Roche for raising this important matter. The bovine TB programme has been a key priority for me since I took office. I am very aware of the financial and emotional challenges for Irish farmers, their families and the communities in which they live when there is a bovine TB breakdown. It is a difficult disease to control and eradicate, as we know, but it can be done and has been done in other countries. I launched the Bovine TB Action Plan: Addressing Bovine TB in Ireland in September 2025, following …

The difficulty is with identifying whether a vaccinated animal tests positive; animals that test positive and vaccinated animals cannot be differentiated. Some research has been done and we have collaborated with research projects on vaccination in the UK and beyond. Vaccination masks the presence of the disease and we need to find it to eradicate it. All of my measures are about identifying it and seeding it out. When I speak about the focus on breeding stock, it is because 6%, give or take, of our herds in the co…

I thank the Deputy for his comment on biosecurity measures. It is fencing off a sett and keeping cattle back. It is not about keeping the badger back in from the cattle. The cattle nose in around the latrine where the sett is and that has been a considerable cause of the spread of disease. Having that practical measure where farmers identify the sett and fence it off will make a difference as will new water troughs. It was important to support farmers in those efforts. We just finalised the tender process to increa…