The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) described the manner in which the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) presented proposals on bovine tuberculosis (TB) as "shambolic".
As previously revealed by Agriland, the department outlined proposed measures to curb the spread of the disease to members of the TB Forum on Wednesday (March 25).
IFA Animal Health Committee chair TJ Maher, who is a member of the TB Forum, said that the department "flashed up over 25 half-baked, poorly thought-out proposals with no details" during the meeting.
"This was in stark contrast to the detailed submission made by the IFA a month earlier,” he said.
Maher said that the department did not circulate its proposals to stakeholders on the day, "instead choosing to flash them up on a screen halfway through the meeting".
"It was a shambolic approach to such a serious issue for farmers, our families and our livelihoods,” he said.
Maher added that the IFA entered the review process in good faith to address the scourge of TB on farms.
"Based on the offering from the department, they do not seem to have the same objectives and don’t appear to appreciate the devastation this disease is causing on farms throughout the country.
"All of the work of the last nine months has been a complete waste of time.
“What the department has set out to resolve the TB issues consists primarily of passing the buck and effectively blaming farmers for the current TB situation.
"It was a cocktail of reduced compensation, more and prolonged restrictions on farmers, and blacklisting of farmers through compulsory herd categorisation,” he said.
The IFA Animal Health chair claimed that the current TB crisis is "a direct result of flawed policy decisions in the past by the department of agriculture and their complete failure to adequately resource and consistently implement the programme".
He said that the IFA put forward a comprehensive set of proposals to DAFM to address all aspects of the disease control measures in the TB programme at the meeting.
These included 13 key points and details of how these should be implemented at farm level.
Maher said the "time for hiding in the shadows is over" for Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon and his officials.
"This disease is crippling farmers while the minister stands over his officials throwing out half-baked, poorly thought-out concepts that will only serve to increase the burden of the disease on farms.
“Minister Heydon needs to grab hold of this issue. He can start by publishing the proposals his officials put forward along with the rationale on how they will reduce the levels and spread of TB and outline the funding allocation he intends to make to support their impact on farms.
“Unless we see a significant change in approach from the department of agriculture in this process we have to question both the purpose and effectiveness of the TB Forum,” he said.