‘Elephant’ in the TB room has to be faced

A GALWAY Minister of State has called on the Dept. of Agriculture to address what she describes as the ‘elephant in the room’ in terms of the TB eradication scheme.

Deputy Anne Rabbitte told the Farming Tribune that while it might be unpalatable for some people to acknowledge, the role of wildlife in the spread of bovine TB had to be ‘faced up to’ and addressed.

She said that what had gone on in the Department over recent weeks and months with the publication of data on the herd TB status of individual farmers could not be justified, adding that the approach of the Dept. had to change.

“I know of farmers who are ‘in-test’ and who are now prevented from selling their stock in the marts or to other farmers – this is absolutely unfair to those farmers,” she said.

Minister of State Rabbitte welcomed the recall of the TB Forum by Minister Charlie McConalogue adding that it had to be ‘open, transparent and meaningful’ in its deliberations.

“There are also concerns as to how TB data was represented in graph presentations by the Department over recent weeks to convey a particular picture.

“At the moment, farmers are the ‘meat in the sandwich’ as far as this whole TB situation has developed – this is going on for the past 60 years and what has happened over recent weeks has been far from helpful,” said Deputy Rabbitte.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app

The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.