Bluetongue: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24 ============================================================ Paul Daly (FF), Agricultural Panel I welcome the Minister here today. I want to be associated with the previous comments also. I compliment the Minister and thank him and his staff for the efficiency with which they have dealt with this issue. If it was not for the targeted surveillance, we probably would not even know there was bluetongue here. It was important that we got out there. That testing has been going on for a long time. When we had an outbreak, the Minister organised a briefing in his Department for spokespeople from the different parties. It was very informative and very reassuring. While this is a major issue for the Irish family farms and they are worried about it, we do not need to do any scaremongering either. We need to reassure. As Senator Boyhan said, we need to reassure the customer. There are no human health issues with this. It is vitally important that at every opportunity we stress that point and that we do not scare people off enjoying the valuable product that is our beef. I have a couple of questions for the Minister. I want to compliment him on the speed with which the market for the hides was reopened in China. I know that the Minister had some of the work done. It was inevitable. Once it came to the North and it was in the west coast of the UK and Wales, with the winds it was inevitable that it was always going to happen and it was going to come here. The Department was out of the traps early and actually had some of the market certificates regenerated before it arrived at all, which is to be commended. As I say, the Minister and his people have to be commended on this. We would have had a major crisis if we had not been able to get the hides to China. The fact that reopened again so swiftly is very welcome and to be commended. I would also like to associate myself with what Senator Brady said about the North. We have to do something about North-South trade. The breeding season is on us now and a large number of stock bulls of different breeds cross the Border from different herds. It is vitally important in terms of keeping genetics up to date. If an animal is tested and is bluetongue free I do not see any reason why they cannot go from a farm in the North to a farm in the South, albeit that it would be an extra hindrance and extra workload on testing them, if someone really wants to buy a bull in the North. My last three stock bulls have come from Irvinestown in County Fermanagh but I cannot replace the one I have at the moment up there now but if he was tested I would confidently take him across the Border. We need to look into this. I know the Minister has had numerous meetings with his counterpart in the North and we cannot determine it as it is the purchaser who calls the shots. I also welcome the recategorisation in Europe from C to D and E. At least it is an acceptance that there is nobody putting a gun to our head here that we are going to have to try to eradicate this disease. I would have a problem or a worry about our good friend who gets the blame a lot of times with TB, but one of the ruminants that is mentioned is the deer. We can do all the testing we want and we can know that our bovines are free but if this gets into the deer herd, and because of the fact that they are living wild in the woods and among trees, I imagine that is going to be even more of a habitat for the midge during the warmer weather. I do not know if there is a plan in place or what action is proposed, but I would be worried about the deer population when the weather improves and as I said, they would be more prone to the midge. With regard to testing and trying to be solution-driven, we had fantastic success in how we handled the BVD. I know that the preferred test for bluetongue is a blood test. Every calf born in Ireland is tagged and a tissue sample is sent away for BVD purposes. Is there any way we could also incorporate a test for bluetongue into that tissue test? As I say, I am very much aware of the fact that the blood test is preferred, but we are taking tissue samples and we are sending them to lab where they are being tested for BVD. How big a job would it be for them to be tested for bluetongue also? I am very much aware of the fact that a pregnant cow can pass it on to her calf. If the calf could be tested when it is being tested for BVD and was positive for bluetongue we would then know that the cow must have been a carrier. This could be done instead of having herd tests or regionalised tests. Could this be considered or worked on? If we are sending in the tissue anyway why can they not be tested for two diseases rather than one? It might be a way of curtailing this. I know it is going to be hard. A midge is a hard thing to curtail, fence, control, monitor or tag, so it is not going to be simple. If we know where it is we will be able to limit it but it is helpful that the EU is recognising it now as a surveillance disease as opposed to one for eradication, because that would be nigh on impossible. The other form of spread - earlier I mentioned about the stock bulls or the purebred bulls coming from the North - is through semen from the bulls. I do not know if it can be made mandatory but anybody with a herd of cows or heifers who would be buying a bull would probably like to see that bull tested. I know it may be left to the prerogative of the sellers of the purebred bulls but it might not be any harm that bulls that are changing hands and going to different herds would be tested. I will probably be the worst in the world if tomorrow the Minister announces mandatory testing because I suggested it but we cannot make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. We want to curtail this; we want to stop it and anyone who would complain about having to test their bulls is not genuine about trying to curtail the bluetongue disease. I have not yet heard the Minister being publicly criticised over this and in this business it is positive that he was not blamed. The Minister will never be praised when he gets it right, but he will be knocked when people think it was wrong. He has not been criticised on this, so far. I do not want to give the Minister a swelled head but so far he must be doing everything correctly and I hope he keeps up the good work. I is important that we keep it at bay as much as we can. How possible that is going to be I do not know but if we leave no stone unturned then none of us can be blamed if it does not end up being curtailed. --- 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