Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 23 January 2019.
Diolch, Llywydd. The Welsh Government has a target to eradicate TB in cattle and wildlife by 2036 and farmers accept that this involves many restrictions on the way they work and operate and imposes substantial costs upon them as well, but that's absolutely necessary in order to achieve the objective, which we all share. But there's a widespread feeling that whilst farmers are doing a lot to contain and control TB on farms with their cattle, the Welsh Government is not being so energetic in attacking the problem that exists in wildlife. And in the results of the culls that have been authorised in Wales that emerged recently in the leaked letters that were the subject of questions from Paul Davies last week, it emerges that only five badgers have been culled since October 2017, and that compares with 10,000 cattle that had to be slaughtered in the year to last September. So, there are lots of people who think that the Welsh Government's policy on controlling wildlife is simply empty words. I wonder if the Minister will care to update us now on what she intends to do to justify her position.