Farmer opposition to TB risk letters and the ongoing cost of the TB programme will dominate the agenda of the TB Forum on Thursday.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue will reconvene the forum after a 16-month hiatus.

The Department has been keen to highlight that further action is needed, as disease trends are deteriorating at a rapid pace. The cost of TB has also escalated over the last five years and this year almost €100m will be spent controlling it, an increase of 15% since 2015. Grant Thornton will finalise a cost-benefit analysis of the programme this month to inform its future funding model, which is currently funded 57% by the Department, 36% farmers, and 7% EU.

TB has become an industry and farmers are sick of paying for it

Speaking in the Dáil last week, Minister of State Martin Heydon said the best way to ease the financial burden on farmers was to reverse TB’s trajectory and work towards eradication. However, both the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) have stressed that farmers cannot be expected to contribute more.

IFA president Tim Cullinan said that “TB has become an industry and farmers are sick of paying for it”, adding that farmers should be paying less, not more.

ICSA’s Hugh Farrell said farmers already pay their fair share, with an annual contribution of €35m, excluding labour.

He said less than half of those funds were channelled back through compensation.

It is understood a second report completed by Grant Thornton on the TB compensation regime shows valuations to be broadly accurate, but recommends greater transparency on how the scheme operates.

High risk

Regarding the letters, the Department insists they provide advice to farmers that should be considered when making annual culling decisions.

There are nearly 1m cattle identified in the letters as high risk that should be considered for culling, figures released to Independent TD Carol Nolan show.

Some 965,400 of these are cattle in 50,509 herds that were alive during a previous TB breakdown.

There are a further 5,869 cattle in 3,872 herds that tested inconclusive and re-tested negative.

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