Bluetongue: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24
============================================================

Seán Kyne (FG), Cultural and Educational Panel

I thank the Minister for coming to the Seanad for these statements on bluetongue. This is a worrying time. My colleague Senator Brady has raised concerns on many occasions over the past year about the possibility of bluetongue arriving, and it has arrived. The Minister mentioned the cases in counties Wexford, Wicklow and Louth. Is there interconnectivity or commonality between Wexford and Wicklow, and indeed Louth? Is that a fresh infection, with the possibility of wind-borne midges arriving via the UK? The Minister has rightly emphasised that there are no public health risks associated with bluetongue. It is important to put that on the record. He has talked about the biting of one animal and the impact that can have.
Unfortunately, now that Ireland has lost its disease-free status it has ramifications for trade. The Minister talked about vaccinations. What is the prognosis in relation to when the Department would actually mandate or more strongly encourage vaccination of animals? Is it restricted to a certain geographical area following a confirmation of an outbreak? What plans or what monitoring do the Department have for that? With the veterinary work, are there proactive veterinary investigations to ascertain the possible spread of the bluetongue? In terms of blood sampling work, the Minister mentioned the blood testing works from culled cows. Is that across the whole country or is that confined to the risk areas at the moment?
In relation to the cases of infection that have taken place, what has happened those animals and their health? I know it is spread from a midge bite and then from biting another animal so I wonder whether there is any indication there. With infection, the high-risk period will be during the warmer months. Thankfully in this sense, but unfortunately in other senses, we have had anything but warmer months. We have had very wet and windy weather. Has that wind actually impacted the midges travelling across? Is this something that is particular to these stormy periods? I think it was in 2024 that Dr. Eoin Ryan from the Department of agriculture presented at a Teagasc conference on the whole issue of bluetongue and talked of wind dispersal of infected midges. He talked about some of the impacts and clinical signs in relation to animals that are suffering from bluetongue, and said that a single bite from a bluetongue-affected midge can cause a new bluetongue infection. Once the bluetongue virus enters the midge population, eradication becomes very difficult and requires high vaccination uptake. A pregnant animal that becomes infected can pass the infection on to their newborn calf. When these calves are born weeks and months later, they are infectious. All of this is quite worrying as we approach the summer months and warmer temperatures, and what may lie ahead for our status. The Minister talked about the impact on trade and some of the mitigation on that. It is worrying. The role of the Minister and his Department in being proactive on this is really important.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-24