Ulster Unionist Party Leader, Robin Swann MLA, has lambasted DAERA for their continuing failure to act on tackling the problem of TB in cattle. He has claimed that the sheer scale inaction from DAERA has been further underscored by DEFRA’s recent proposal to roll out badger culls across most of England, even in areas where TB is not a major problem.
Robin Swann said:
“Bovine TB is a blight on every single farmer affected and it’s a blight on the industry as a whole. It costs Northern Ireland taxpayers around £40m a year in testing and compensation costs, impacts around 1 in 10 farm businesses and the inconvenience to farmers through regular testing and closed herds is incalculable.
“For a long time it’s been obvious that DARD, and subsequently DAERA, have been far behind their counterparts in GB in responding to the disease. Instead of incidence rates improving, even slowly, they've been getting worse in recent times. In 2018, and after so much money, time and research, that simply shouldn't be the case.
“More than enough time has passed for a solution to be found. Whilst I’m watching closely the pilot developments about the test, vaccinate and release trials, even they – in the overall scale of things – are a very small effort.
“The work of DAERA is poles apart from that of DEFRA. Whilst the latter has undoubtedly made some mistakes, at least it’s trying. As part of its overall strategy to eradicate TB in England by 2038, DEFRA has now proposed extending badger culls into low-risk areas.
“Badger culling was already permitted in England, but only in 21 areas where the disease was especially common. It is obvious that the UK Government has identified the incidence of TB in wildlife to be one of the largest contributory factors in the spread of the disease overall.
“Whilst the absence of a local Agriculture Minister is undoubtedly making the situation worse, the reality is that even under the last 3 Sinn Fein and DUP Agriculture Ministers still nothing happened. It is clear therefore that until there is a culture change and realisation within the senior civil servants at the top of the Department that real action is needed, I fear little will actually happen in terms of getting the disease under control. Even the recent consultation on TB has been left just sitting on a shelf.
“Farmers have grown totally weary of this disease - some have been closed for so long that operating anyway normally is now impossible. They don’t need distractions of people talking about applying levies on the industry as a whole in order to fund it, just like they don’t need any more false promises or vague comments that the disease remains a departmental priority.
"They certainly don’t need any more quangos tasked with commissioning even more research or having long drawn out discussions on the disease.
“It won’t be lost on many that incidentally the £350 a day chairman of the new TB Eradication Partnership (TBEP), Sean Hogan, was also the chairman of TB Strategic Partnership Group which just so happened to make the recommendation for the establishment of the TBEP in the first place.
"Farmers just want action; they don’t need any more delays or reports about reports.”
