Additional Funding for Animal Health in Budget Must be Used Effectively

IFA National Animal Health chair TJ Maher said the additional €20.5m provided by the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue for Animal Health in the Budget can have a positive impact for farmers in disease eradication programmes if used effectively.

The additional funding provided is broken down into two categories: €10.5m for targeted TB Testing and €10m for TASAH, BVD and IBR programmes.

TJ Maher said a fully-funded and well-resourced TB programme is critical if we are to make any progress in reducing the levels of TB in the country.  “Central to this is the resources and approach taken by the Wildlife Control Programme.  Both are falling short of what is required and must be reviewed urgently.”

Turning to BVD, he said farmers have done the heavy lifting on BVD to-date, spending over €120m in the programme and bringing the country to the point of recognised BVD freedom.

It is now time for the Department of Agriculture to step in and take on the remaining testing costs in the programme from 2025 onwards.

“Until the costs of the BVD programme are removed from farmers, discussions around an IBR programme will not advance.  It is unreasonable and unacceptable to expect farmers to commence yet another programme under the auspices of AHI until BVD is off the table,” he said.

He said the additional funding provided by the Minister in this week’s Budget can easily deliver freedom for farmers from the costs of the BVD programme and in doing so will create the basis to advance discussions on IBR.

The IFA Animal Health chair said it is now incumbent on AHI to ensure this additional funding is used for the BVD programme, which is the clearly expressed position of IFA and the BVD Implementation Group.