The outbreak of bluetongue in Wexford is a tragic occurrence. I express my sympathy to the farmers and families impacted by it. Since the first herd tested positive for bluetongue, it has been identified in an additional three herds in Wexford, according to the most recent reports. It must be very worrying for those farmers whose herds have tested positive for this disease. Although bluetongue does not pose any risk to food safety and infected meats can still be consumed, it has a big knock-on effect on imports. The distinction between food safety and trade safety is an important one. Our domestic food supply remains safe but the international marketplace does not operate on the basis of food safety alone. Many of our export destinations, those outside the EU in particular, will only accept live animals or certain animal products from countries that hold a disease-free certification. Once that status is interrupted, even temporarily, markets react instantly. Some countries shut their doors automatically the moment a disease notification is issued. Obviously, that has huge consequences for farmers on the ground. Export-dependent farmers suddenly face delays, uncertainty and, in some cases, complete market closures. Orders that were being arranged are put on pause and animals that were due to travel cannot do so. This, in turn, leads to increased housing and feed costs, and all the while, revenue is on hold. I cannot imagine the anxiety this must cause farmers. Farmers plan their year and income around sales windows, mart days, shipping periods and production cycles that run with precision. Therefore, when an event like this pauses live exports, everything downstream becomes unstable. This causes daily worries in farm households impacted by the disease. While this is the first case of a bluetongue infection in a home-bred Irish animal, it is likely not the last, unfortunately. We are facing a well-documented climate and ecological change. Scientists have told us for years that Ireland’s risk profile for vector-borne diseases is changing. Bluetongue did not arrive here because a farmer did something wrong or through lax standards or poor biosecurity. Rather, it arrived because the climate systems around us are shifting. Weather patterns have changed and midges capable of carrying the virus can survive in conditions that were once inhospitable to them. Today, therefore, is not just about responding to the outbreak in Wexford. It is about acknowledging what this outbreak represents, a warning signal about our preparedness for a changing environment. Climate change is reshaping disease risks, farm work and viability and rural resilience. The flooding of recent months devastated farmland across the country. Fields were submerged for weeks, and many still are. Silage stores were destroyed, walkways collapsed and livestock had to be rehoused unexpectedly. Slurry tanks were filled far earlier than intended and crops, particularly cereal and roots, suffered losses that will take years to fully quantify. When that happens, not just the current season is affected. Knock-on effects hit the following year’s planting, the nutrient balance of the soil, fodder reserves and overall farm planning. Let us not forget that this is also on the back of storms Darragh and Éowyn, the impacts of which many farmers are still feeling. Bluetongue is a different kind of climate-linked crisis, but it belongs in the same category. Climate change does not manifest only in storms, rainfall and droughts; it also manifests in the migration and survival of disease vectors, midges, ticks and, increasingly, mosquitos. For years, Ireland’s naturally cool climate acted as a barrier to diseases like bluetongue because the virus could not replicate inside midges below certain temperatures, but our winters are getting milder and our summers are stretching longer. Our springs and autumns are becoming warmer and wetter. Those are exactly the conditions these insects need to thrive. In short, vector-borne diseases that were once improbable in Ireland are now entirely plausible. Bluetongue is here and others may follow. We need to shift towards a strategy of anticipation and prevention. One of the ways we can do that is through increased vector sampling. What happened in Wexford was detected through routine surveillance but the scale of the surveillance required in a climate-altered Ireland will be far greater. We need expanded vector sampling nationwide, not concentrated in traditional high-risk regions. Bluetongue cannot be treated as a once-off anomaly; it must be taken as a signal and warning. Ireland needs a national plan to address diseases transmitted by midges, ticks and mosquitos. A national vector-borne disease strategy should be published, costed and evaluated annually. On top of all of that, we need to prioritise climate-resilient farming. If we do not do that, we may as well admit we are giving up. We cannot continue to operate on a system where a single flooding event wipes out winter fodder for an entire region. We need to plan ahead. Our agriculture sector needs to be climate resilient if it wants to stand any chance of thriving and, indeed, surviving in this new Ireland. For years, we spoke about climate change as something that was coming. It is no longer coming; it is here. It is here in the floods in Cork, Wexford and the Shannon Basin. It is here in the wetter autumns and warmer winters. It is here in the fodder shortages, the failed second cuts, the drowning of crops and the destruction of farmyards. It is now here with the arrival of bluetongue in a home-bred Irish animal. Climate change is not only an environmental issue. It is an agricultural issue, a food security issue, a rural economy issue and, indeed, a public health issue. Irish agriculture cannot be climate-proofed with debates and press releases. It must be climate-proofed with investment, foresight and policy reform. Bluetongue will not be the last climate-linked crisis to reach our shores, but it can be the moment when the Government chooses to respond not only with containment but with forward thinking. If proper supports are put in place and plans are made for what is coming, the agriculture sector can be climate-proofed. This outbreak is a warning but it also brings opportunity. I urge the Government to treat it with the full seriousness and urgency it deserves. Otherwise, our farmers will continue to pay the price.

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