Farmer backs call for ‘plain speaking’ on TB concerns

Farmer backs call for ‘plain speaking’ on TB concerns

30 April 2025

A TYRELLA farmer has endorsed a call for “plain speaking” on TB following a recent review published by Stormont Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir.

Mr Ronnie Murphy, who is a member of Farmers For Action’s (FFA) Steering Committee, said it needs to be made very clear that the organisation and some other farm groups were excluded from and had no input into the review outcome. 

FFA said it would appear that the government department “cherry-picks” the farm organisations that they now call key stakeholders in order to achieve the outcome that they want rather than face opposition. 

In addition, they say the most knowledgeable man in Northern Ireland on bovine TB, Dr Sam Strain, was also left out of the latest TB partnership group. 

FFA says as the world faces extreme uncertainty with food security in the face of wars, human disease and currently animal disease, the Department for Agriculture’s response on TB is “totally unacceptable”. 

It said this comes after decades of inaction, not to mention fines levied by the EU prior to 2020 for inaction towards eradicating TB.

FFA’s Sean McAuley said the current measures, if enacted, will only pile on more pressure on hard pressed livestock farmers who are being forced to hold way more stock than they have capacity for which is causing all sorts of problems, practically, financially and mentally.

“In short, the Department is making unpaid slaves out of farming families by their lack of capability and politicking and this has to end immediately, in one of three ways or all three combined.”

Mr McAuley said DAERA “needs to go back to court, properly instructed by capable legal people” and have the last court case reversed, to allow a cull of infected badgers across Northern Ireland immediately.

In addition, it says the government needs to contact the Byrne Convention and have the badgers protected status now removed as they are no longer an endangered species, but now present in huge numbers and spreading disease, killing hedgehogs, leverets and other wildlife including destroying bee nests.

And Mr McAuley said the government effort needs to be in top gear to find a cure for early caught bTB.

He added: “The world’s diseases thrive on inaction and this we cannot afford.”