The Department of Agriculture expects that the cost to the Exchequer of rolling out the TB eradication programme as it currently stands could triple between 2023 and next year due to rising disease trends.

The programme cost the Department €57m in 2023, rising to €100m last year and the Department’s own forecast at current disease trajectories could see it hit €130m for this year.

Costs to the Department in 2026 are expected to reach between €170m and €180m if the disease progresses as expected.

The figures above were cited by principal officer with the Department Conor O’Mahony as the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture met on the issue of bovine TB on Wednesday.

Spending levels

These spending levels would see the Department’s TB bill exceed €400m in just three years – 2024, 2025 and 2026 - and that is without accounting for tens of millions in additional costs represented by Department staffing, farmer vet testing bills and farmer levies.

The latest disease figures put herd incidence at 6.38% - a level not witnessed since 2003.

Some 6,458 herds have experienced a TB breakdown in the last 12 months in comparison with 5,217 in the same period last year and there have been 42,970 reactors identified over the last 12 months.

“Data analysis suggests the reasons underpinning current levels of TB incidence are the expansion of the dairy herd and the resulting increased levels of intensive cattle farming and the increased movement of cattle,” O’Mahony told TDs and senators.

“These conditions are associated with heightened susceptibility to disease, whether that is TB or any other infectious disease.”