A number of new committees, including an implementation committee and a finance committee are being established in the TB Forum to put into play a new bovine TB eradication strategy, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has confirmed.

The minister confirmed this to AgriLand in a wide-ranging interview last week which, among other topics, included the news earlier this month that broad stakeholder agreement has been announced on the new bovine TB eradication strategy

A new TB eradication strategy is in the pipeline; what will this mean for farmers on the ground? Will there be more restrictive measures to get on top of the rising rates of bovine TB – and if so, what will these look like?

Minister McConalogue: Firstly I want to acknowledge the work and effort of all of those involved in the TB stakeholder forum, the farmer representative bodies, the various stakeholders and also the work of the department here and the chairman of the TB forum Michael Cronin in relation to bringing everyone together to agree the policy objectives of the overall strategy.

Within that strategy we have an implementation committee established within the TB forum which will now work to ensure that those objectives are put in place and that there’s further detail operationalised around that.

Key to that will be ensuring that we try to identify the areas where the figures are higher and work in a more intensive way with farmers – particularly those who are seeing recurrences.

Also, in terms of focusing on the wildlife aspects of that and the wildlife contribution to it and try to ensure that appropriate measures are taken in those areas, depending on what the considerations are from the staff on the ground.

Given the deterioration we’ve seen over the last year in particular in relation to the increased reactor rates, we really do have to get a grip. We’re now up to 4.5% of farms having reactors. That’s up from 3.5% the previous year. It’s really going very quickly in the wrong direction.

That’s why it was essential that we have everyone working together to try an agreed approach.

“Very early in the new year the implementation committee will be following through, working off a strategy to put in place the appropriate mechanisms to try and bring those figures down and work with farmers, particularly those in high reactor areas to address the increases we’ve seen.

Are there any specific measures in mind that can be mentioned at this stage?

“A lot of that will be down to the implementation committee in relation to actually ensuring that the additional supports are put there; I think we need additional staffing around wildlife issues as well and there is a commitment there in relation to the TB strategy for that.

Also I think managing risk, and how we work with farmers to ensure that risk is managed.

While the TB strategy is a really important first step and really important indication that we’re all going to work together in a partnership approach, there’s now a lot of additional work required through the implementation committee in relation to translating that into what it means for farmers and the effort and measures on the ground.

I do think we shouldn’t underestimate the step and departure here. In the past we’ve seen it too much about it being the department on one hand being the enforcer as such.

It’s really important that we do work in partnership.

Will there be changes in funding?

Funding is something which was discussed within the TB forum significantly; there is a report, a Grant Thornton report in relation to the current funding model and the various contributions in terms of the state and also the farmers and that’s going to be something that will come now to the TB forum.

There’s a finance committee established within the TB forum as well which will consider that and feed into the wider TB forum too in terms of how we will take that forward and consider its recommendations.

Are farmers looking at an increased contribution from a farmer point of view to this?

There hasn’t been any determination on that and it’ll be something that will be very much informed by the Grant Thornton report which is looking at the issue in depth.