We know the destructive impact that TB is having economically on farm families and businesses and on communities. It’s also having a detrimental emotional effect on individuals in destroying generations of work in developing pedigree and quality stock. I don’t need to paint that picture, but I am concerned sometimes that we are desensitised, particularly if we as politicians aren’t close to some of these communities and individuals who are affected.

As someone who lives on a family farm—and I should declare an interest here, of course, because my wife is a partner in a farm business—seeing friends and neighbours and their farms going down with TB—it is as horrific an experience for them today as it has ever been. The historic failure of the Welsh Government to tackle this disease effectively does mean, of course, that the pain and heartbreak will continue in communities the length and breadth of Wales.

The latest statistics, to be honest, are no comfort to me. Yes, we’ve seen a reduction in the number of herds infected, but, of course, there are 30 per cent fewer herds in comparison to the situation 10 years ago. That tells its own story, in my view. Today, 5.6 per cent of herds are under restrictions as compared to 3.8 per cent in 2006, as was mentioned earlier. And, of course, there is the significant increase that we have heard about in the number of cattle that are culled—43 per cent nationally over a period of 12 months. We’ve heard reference to Clwyd, the area where I live—an increase of 129 per cent in the cattle that are culled. Now, of course, people will say, ‘Well, we’re testing more’. Well, yes, we are testing 5 per cent more in Clwyd; 129 per cent more cattle, though, are culled.

The skin test that is used to find TB has been successful in helping to control and eradicate the disease from a number of countries over the past 50 years. Interestingly, it only fails where the disease exists in wildlife. In Britain, the test was very successful in the 1950s and 1960s, apart from in those areas where there was a high number of badgers.

We know of the situation in England—there was a decline of 53 per cent in the new cases of infected herds in the six months after the completion of the proactive badger culling trials in England. There’s been a decline of between 60 per cent and 96 per cent in the rate that herds were confirmed to have been under restrictions following badger culls in the Republic of Ireland.

We have heard of concerns about Wales’s trading relationship with the rest of the world. Well, Australia and New Zealand actually eradicated TB successfully because of the specific threat of trade restrictions on their agricultural produce as a result of high levels of infection. Central to that success, of course, was controlling the disease in wildlife.

I have to say that hearing Carwyn Jones in this Chamber last week saying in quite a blasé manner that there wasn’t a real threat to Welsh exports and trade because of TB—well, that was a real concern for me and it should be a cause of concern for each and every one of us. Don’t expect other nations to make it easy for us; the stakes are higher now than they have ever been. We are duty bound to use all tools possible to tackle TB more effectively.

What are the experts saying? We as politicians often like to say when we discuss health policy, ‘Well, it’s important that we listen to the voice of the doctors and nurses’. When we discuss education, ‘Well, it’s important that we listen to our teachers.’ The Cabinet Secretary for Education said that just an hour and a half ago when we were discussing the reduction in class sizes, although the OECD, the academics and research organisations say differently—’No, it’s important that we listen to the voice of teachers and parents’. Yes, fine, that’s perhaps how it should be. What, then, about the workers in the front line in the battle against bovine TB? What do they tell us? Well, ask the vets, ask the BVA, the association representing British vets—they are in favour of badger culling as part of a comprehensive eradication strategy, and that is exactly what is needed in my view too. The time has come for the Government here to be brave and to face the reality once and for all. We need a badger cull scheme as part of the solution to TB in Wales, and we need it now.