Minister called to address payments under Bovine TB scheme

THE Galway IFA Animal Health Chair has called on the Minister for Agriculture to look at the “unfair ceilings” for payments available to farmers who are hit with a Bovine TB breakdown in their herd.

Bovine TB was particularly prevalent on farms in Co Galway and nationwide last year. The On Farm Market Valuation Scheme (OFMV) is the main compensation scheme for farmers dealing with the respiratory disease in their cattle.

The scheme offers farmers a maximum payment of €5,000 for pedigree cows and pedigree in-calf heifers, as well as a maximum payment of €5,000 each for farmers who have up to three pedigree stock bulls impacted by the same Bovine TB breakdown. The ceiling for payment on any other individual bovine animal is €3,000 through the OFMV Scheme.

Maura Canning, the Galway IFA Animal Health Chair, has said that Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon kicked the issue for touch when it was raised with him earlier this year. Canning also said more funding was required for the Bovine TB Eradication Programme and that a Bovine TB Action Plan needed to be agreed upon.

The budget for the TB Eradication Programmed for 2026 was increased by €25million to €157m.

“Both of these issues were delivered on by October last year with the support of farmers, yet the Minister has still not honoured his commitment to address the outdated and unfair ceilings in the live valuation scheme since,” said Canning.

“For the first quarter this year, the spend in the TB Eradication Programme is actually two per cent below last year’s level with TB reactor numbers down almost 5,000 on the same period in 2025.

“This surplus funding, exceeding €25m, now provides Minister Heydon with the immediate opportunity to address the long-standing issue with the ceilings in the OFMV Scheme.

"The scheme must reflect the open market value of an animal as agreed in early 2000 between government and farm organisations, not a figure determined by arbitrary ceilings.”

Canning also said that suckler farmers are being penalised by the OFMV Scheme’s current system most.

“Suckler farming is already under significant pressure, with declining cow numbers and serious challenges around generational renewal, and the continued use of these outdated ceilings further undermines confidence in the sector and imposes additional unnecessary burdens from TB outbreaks on these vulnerable, small scale family farms,” she said.