Relevant Matter
Public policy or programme
Public Policy Area
Agriculture
Period
1 Sep, 2025 to 31 Dec, 2025
Specific Details
Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD)
Intended results
To highlight that to date farmers have made significant financial investment in the BVD eradication programme.
To highlight that this programme has made huge progress in reducing the levels of the disease in the national herd but is stagnating at low levels which will prolong achieving actual disease freedom in the country.
That while current figures are broadly on target to achieve recognised legislative freedom in the EU Animal Health Law, this is not full eradication of the disease in this country. Therefore it is vital that the progress that Irish farmers have made to date in the programmes must be protected, applying for recognised legislative freedom requires that vaccination for BVD to be prohibited. While there is still disease in the country this is a risk that should not be taken.
To call on the Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine to come forward with funding to rebalance the current disproportionate cost burden on farmers to provide an equitable and fair cost sharing model.
IFA propose
- An increase in compensation levels for PI animals removed from farms to reflect the current market value of these animals.
- Following 13 years of paying for the testing costs associated with BVD, recognising the subvention Government have provided in recent years, this support funding must now be increase to cover the full testing costs on farms for the remainder of the BVD programme.
- When it is decided to apply for legislative freedom for the disease, farmers must be allowed to continue to vaccinate their animals for BVD throughout the process and on attainment of recognised free status. The EU Animal Health Law must be amended to facilitate this approach.
To stress that, to allow AHI to fulfil its function and maximise its benefits the BVD programmes costs must be removed for farmers.
Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity
Francie Gorman IFA President, TJ Maher IFA Animal Health Committee Chair, Tomas Bourke IFA Senior Policy Executive, Donal Callaghan IFA Policy Executive
Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?)
No
Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign?
No
Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client?
No
Lobbying activity
The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.
Informal communication (2-5)
Designated public officials lobbied
The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them.
As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.
Barry Cassidy
Special Adviser (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)
Brian Purcell
Special Adviser (Department of Agriculture and the Marine)
June Fanning
Chief Veterinary Officer (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)
Martin Heydon
Minister (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)