Watch: Heydon will allocate more money to TB 'if it delivers results' for farmers
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, has pledged to 'seek more money and allocate more money to the area of bovine tuberculosis (TB) but only if it is going to deliver the results that will benefit farmers".
Minister Heydon today (Monday, May 12) told Agriland that there are three main contributors which have been identified in relation to the spread of TB.
The minister said: "One is wildlife and we are going to do more in that space in terms of putting a greater investment in and changing our approach from the Department of Agriculture perspective in partnership with NPWS (National Parks and Wildlife Service) and others.
"The second is cattle - cattle transmission is a key driver of this disease and then the residual transmission that's left in a herd that has been undetected after an outbreak.
"We have to address all three elements, if we don't we'll leave a gap in the fence so I will invest more, I will put more focus in this space and I need everyone to work with me".
Minister Heydon also stressed that he is determined not to leave a space where TB can "seep through".
"We've got to stop this rapid increase in in the disease.
"We have to stabilise it, reduce it and then we can credibly talk about eradication," he said.
Last week the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine called a meeting to discuss proposed new measures to tackle TB with representatives of the country's key farming organisations and other key sector stakeholders.
He told Agriland that he has listened to "concerns" raised by farming organisations following this meeting.
According to Minister Heydon currently more money is being spent on TB than has been budgeted or allocated to the disease.
"If I get to bring in the majority of the proposals that are on the table it will actually cost more money out of my budget to start with.
"But this is costing farmers money, it's costing money out of my department that I would much prefer to spend on beef farmers in other ways to support them in the work they do," Minister Heydon added.
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine said he is now keen to implement new measures to mitigate the impact of TB within "weeks not months".
"This is a crisis of very significant proportion.
"Only very recently a couple of years ago we were having 20,000 reactors a year, last year we had 41,600 and if I don't act very soon we could be up at 60,000 reactors.
"I'm not going to let that happen on my watch," Minister Heydon said.
