Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon (FG, Kildare South), appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food for the first time on Wednesday, May 28th
In his opening remarks, Minister Heydon said he is “determined to communicate a fresh understanding of what it is that farmers, fishers, foresters and the food industry contribute to Irish society and the economy”.
He added: “The sector is responsible for the stewardship of 4.5 million hectares of agricultural land and over 800,000 ha of forestry. It consists of 133,000 farms, 2,000 fishing vessels and aquaculture sites, and some 2,000 food production and beverage enterprises. It employs 171,400 people, representing 6.4% of the total workforce, but a far greater proportion in rural and coastal areas. In an increasingly globalised world, the Irish agrifood sector is a world leader. All of this is underpinned, and made possible, by the work of those producing the raw material.”
Minister Heydon acknowledged that securing the next derogation post 2025 “is going to be a real challenge” given that Ireland is now “the only EU member state left seeking to avail of this provision”.
Regarding Bovine TB, the Minister said the disease “is having a significant impact on our farmers and their families both financially and emotionally throughout rural Ireland. In recent years, bovine TB levels have deteriorated. Herd incidence has increased from 4.31% in 2022 to 6.04% in 2024, resulting in a 36% increase in the number of herds restricted between those two years.
“With that, the cost of the TB programme has increased steadily for the Exchequer, for farmers and in terms of lost output. Current projections show an approach of business as usual will lead to further deterioration of disease levels. I am therefore engaged in consultation with key stakeholders on a reset of Ireland’s TB eradication programme.”
During a session which over-ran by 15 minutes and featured a brief suspension, the Minister heard a range of views from the committee.
Committee Leas-Chathaoirleach William Aird (FG, Laois) described TB as “the most pressing thing in the mind of every one of my farming colleagues at the moment. Every farmer out there is terrified of a TB test…"
On the back of several TB-specific queries raised by members, Minister Heydon stated: “Since I was appointed at the end of January, I engaged with the TB forum in February, asked the farm organisations and other stakeholders to make submissions, which they did, and then my chief veterinary officer attended the TB forum meeting in March. Our chief veterinary officer, Dr June Fanning, put forward proposals from the Department at that meeting.
“There was significant feedback from the farm organisations on them and I amended those proposals, especially by beefing up the supports and extra interventions I was going to make on the wildlife side and resource elements across a number of different interventions.
The chair of the TB forum wrote to me saying he felt the forum had reached a point where it could not go any further in getting to a decision-making point. That is when I called the summit.
“On that day and last Thursday I was back west and have had 18 hours of detailed negotiations and engagement with farm organisations, highlighting that whatever the final plan looks like, it must address all three key areas of the spread of the disease. I would love to have consensus on it because I would hate farmers who are stressed by it to experience the mixed messaging that could come from conflict later. One area is wildlife, a second is cattle transmission and the third is the residual element left in herds.”
Minister Heydon said the current 6.3% herd incidence rate of TB was last recorded in 2003 when there were 28,000 reactors. Last year alone, some 42,000 reactors were recorded. “If we do not intervene, that figure could rise to 63,000 by the end of the year,” he said. “Something has changed significantly in respect of the spread of the disease and the number of reactors.”
The Minister acknowledged: “The testing system is not 100%. If it was, the issue would have been resolved years ago. That is our challenge. The skin test, which detects 80% of infected cattle, gives us very good cover. Coupling it with the gamma interferon test, GIF, or blood testing, can bring that 80% to over 90%. We know there is no one simple test that will detect 100% of cases.
“We must identify the areas of high risk. We know where the high-risk cohorts are. We know there are three levels of transmission. There is residual transmission from high-risk herds that have significant outbreaks of three or more infected cattle. That cohort is 45% more likely to have a reactor in the next three years. Cattle-to-cattle transmission is a significant contributing factor, as is wildlife. We have a range of options to address those three areas. We are coming together with a set of proposals.”
TB was far from the only issue raised by the committee. In response to delays in ACRES payments highlighted by Senator Joanne Collins (SF), Minister Heydon acknowledged the “really frustrating space” that he and fellow Oireachtas members found themselves in.
“When I first got this job on January 23rd, 14,500 farmers were unpaid. That number is now down close to 5,000. As I have said, that is little comfort for those whose cases have not been resolved…Of the 5,300-odd cases that are remaining, about 1,800 relate to rotational measures. They are all going to be dealt with in the same way with the same resolution. They are very close to being included in the next payment run or in the very near future because of the resolution.”
Replying to Deputy Natasha Newsome Drennan (SF, Carlow-Kilkenny) on concerns over the Mercosur trade deal, Minister Heydon said the ultimate governmental responsibility for this matter lay with Tánaiste and Minister for Trade, Simon Harris (FG, Wicklow).
He continued: “but I would not be doing my job if I did not articulate the concerns of farmers and their views on this. I have said previously, with regard to farmers who have shown great ambition in the area of increased conditionality and requirements on the environmental side, that the impact of the various standards that could come in through Mercosur are very hard to accept. These are points I have articulated and I continue to engage with colleagues from like-minded countries.
“As the legal scrubbing of the text continues, there is still significant process to go through in Brussels, and trade ministers, the Council of Europe and the Parliament have a role to play in the process. I cannot be any clearer than I have been previously.”
A full transcript of the session can be accessed here: Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food debate – Wednesday, 28 May 2025
