Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the TB budget, there has been a fair explosion in TB this year. Is the Department concerned that a bigger budget will be needed in this area? I ask this because my understanding from talking to farmers, especially in the dairy sector, is that the EBI value of a cow has been cut by €50 to €60 in those assessments in the last month. Is this a cut by the Department? I refer to the context of more money being put in. Is this going to set a trend if more cattle get TB? Will there start to be a tightening in the price of the stock? I talked to some dairy farmers whose cows, unfortunately, would have gone earlier in the year and the same cow with the same EBI has now got less. The farmers are saying the decrease has been between €60 and €100. Is this the case?