Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 November 2023
212. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to clarify if there are compensation options available for farmers where their goat herd contracts tuberculosis in the same manner as financial supports are available to beef and cattle farmers in a similar situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50342/23]
View answerThere is no statutory surveillance or control programme for TB in goats in Ireland.
Whilst there is a compensation scheme available to eligible herdowners of bovines in the event of a TB outbreak, funded in part from disease levies collected on milk supplies and and bovines slaughtered or exported live, there is no compensation scheme available to or collection of disease levies from goat owners.
A goat herd keeper who is supplying milk, including for trade, to consumers, must test his/her herd for TB however and have a TB control plan in place. This is a public health requirement. This plan is subject to re-submission every three to five years. It may also be necessary to test goat herds for TB as part of an epidemiological investigation into, or as part of controlling, a bovine TB breakdown in an area
