Animal Health Ireland, AHI, is an industry-led, Government supported not-for-profit company operating as a partnership between its members, which include livestock producers, processors, Government and service providers, including veterinarians and other professional advisers. AHI is mandated to provide the leadership, knowledge and co-ordination required to pursue effective control strategies for important non-regulated diseases of livestock.
AHI was formally established in January 2009 and registered as a company limited by guarantee in May that year. The company currently has 32 members representing farmer producers, processors, the Government and support and advisory services. The vision of the organisation is that Animal Health Ireland would be recognised as a world class resource, enabling Irish farmers and the agri-food industry to achieve and maintain the highest standards of animal health internationally, improve the profitability and sustainability of the enterprises and enhance the value and competitiveness of Irish products in the market. The mission statement is to enhance value for livestock farmers and the agrifood industry through superior animal health.
The key functions of AHI are: to provide leadership in the area of non-regulated animal disease, based on the mandate given to us by the Government and other funding members; facilitate the collation and adaptation of the most up-to-date expertise on specific aspects of prioritised diseases and programming to underpin all stages of our planning and implementation; identify research gaps and work with other agencies to close those gaps; design animal health programmes based on sound education principles, produce quality communications and keep with the needs of our target audiences; co-ordinate the efforts of all stakeholders and ensure relevant technical, scientific and commercial considerations are taken into account in the design and implementation of animal health programmes; and expertly manage each of our programmes by continuously assessing feedback from stakeholders, monitoring value-for-money indicators, reviewing effectiveness and reporting to all involved in a timely manner.
Over the course of 2008 and 2009, each stakeholder established the maximum amount of its future financial contribution to AHI in any given year. In determining these amounts, account was taken of the size of the organisation and of the nature of the business in which it is engaged. In the case of the largest single contributor, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the commitment to AHI is for a maximum of €500,000 per annum for a period of five years to the end of 2013, subject to the receipt of a matching contribution by non-State sources, and to the provisions made in the annual Estimates of public expenditure. The actual level of financial contribution to be sought from stakeholders is subject to the maximum committed amounts to which I have referred. For 2009-2010, total expenditure was €302,342, with a surplus of €25,269. For the financial year 2010-2011, expenditure was €625,535, with a surplus of €45,415. For 2011, the projected expenditure is €937,439.
The board of Animal Health Ireland nominally comprises seven non-executive directors, who were nominated by the Minister at the time of the creation of the organisation. There are currently six serving directors, following the recent retirement of one of the directors. The management team currently consists of me as the chief executive officer and the following individuals: Ms Nuala Morgan is the company secretary, Dr. David Graham is the programme manager for bio-secure diseases, Mr. Karol Harvey is the planning and operations manager and Ms Fionnuala Malone is the technical working group liaison. In addition to the staff directly employed by the company, AHI has entered into a collaboration agreement with Teagasc, under which Ms Finola McCoy has been assigned to the role of programme manager for the national mastitis control programme, CellCheck.
The technical working groups comprise experts and experienced practitioners from a variety of fields tasked with drawing up factual resources, the development of decision-making tools, and the identification of areas for further research and development. In areas in which AHI is developing disease control and eradication programmes of national scope, the technical working groups also provide the technical support necessary to underpin such programmes. These individuals give their time free of charge to Animal Health Ireland, thereby enabling AHI to access the technical resources required to develop its various programmes at a fraction of the true commercial cost of such expertise.
AHI has established implementation groups, drawn from relevant stakeholder groups to assist with the final design and rollout of the bovine viral diarrhoea and CellCheck programmes; an implementation group for the forthcoming Johne's disease programme will be established shortly.
Shortly after its establishment in January 2009, AHI undertook a major study to elicit opinion from industry experts and farmers on the non-regulatory animal health issues facing the Irish beef and dairy sectors. Diseases were prioritised based on factors including cost, impact, international perception and the impediment to international market access. AHI has established work programmes regarding the majority of the priorities identified in the study but not all of the identified priorities have to date been addressed, and some have been addressed much more comprehensively than others. Decisions determining which of the prioritised diseases and conditions to address in which order were based on factors such as the probability of achieving eradication or significant control of the disease within reasonable timeframes and given available resources.
The board and management of AHI are grateful for this opportunity to engage with the joint committee and we look forward to providing members with details of all aspects of the company's operation.