Cavan IFA rep calls for TB ceilings to be removed

Cavan IFA Animal Health Chair Thomas Cooney has called on the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon to immediately remove the “unfair, arbitrary and out of date ceilings” he is applying in the On-Farm Market Valuation Scheme for animals taken from farms as part of the TB eradication programme.

Thomas Cooney said the On Farm Market Valuation Scheme was agreed with the Department of Agriculture and Government over 25 years ago.

It was designed to provide farmers losing animals as part of a TB outbreak with the ‘value their animals would be reasonably expected to attain if offered for sale on the open market’.

However, the Cavan Health Chair says “the welcome increase” in the value of cattle of all types since earlier this year the scheme, means “the ceilings applied is no longer fulfilling this commitment and farmers are losing out heavily.”

Thomas Cooney also said every time IFA raised the issue with the minister and his officials “the stock response was funding had to secured for the TB programme and in particular the New TB plans before this issue could be addressed.”

Mr Cooney said the €85 million in additional funding provided in the budget “now opens the door” for the minister to remove ceilings from the scheme entirely to ensure the scheme serves its purpose and delivers on the agreement with Government of over 25 years by ensuring animals removed from our farms by the Department of Agriculture are receiving their true value.”

He said based on IFA /IFAC analysis of costs, the TB programme is already costing farmers €150 million annually. “The ceilings of €3,000 and €5,000 are adding significantly to these costs and compounding already sizeable costs and losses the TB controls are imposing on farmers,” Thomas Cooney added.

“The Minister has recently launched his TB plans, within these there are some very difficult measures for farmers to take on, implementing this plan will require the goodwill of farmers and this certainly will not be forthcoming until the Minister addresses the issues with the ceilings in the live valuation scheme,” he concluded.