Minister Must Provide His Draft TB Proposals to Stakeholders Before ‘Summit’
IFA President Francie Gorman said Minister Martin Heydon must provide his draft TB proposals to stakeholders in advance of his so-called summit next week.
At the TB Forum meeting on March 26th, the Department of Agriculture committed to providing stakeholders with their proposals and the rationale behind them. DAFM also committed to providing observations on the proposals made by IFA. To-date, we have not had been provided with these documents.
IFA submitted a detailed set of proposed enhancements to the TB programme measures at the end of February – over two months ago – which was the deadline set by the Department of Agriculture.
The IFA President said TB is causing enormous financial and psychological pressure on farms and must be addressed.
Issuing an invitation to a ‘summit’ out of the blue at a week’s notice with no details on what will be discussed, and no draft documents, looks like a poorly thought-out PR stunt by the Minister.
IFA consulted widely within our membership and our National Animal Health Committee which has an elected farmer representative from every county. We made what is generally accepted as being a very comprehensive and constructive set of proposals. Our document is in the public domain and can be found on our website here.
“The Minister was able to brief media about his ‘summit’ before he even sent the invitation to the stakeholders, yet he is unwilling to provide any details of the measures to be discussed on the day. This shouldn’t be about spin or choreography from the Minister. TB is deadly serious and it is costing farmers millions,” he said.
