Annual expenditure on the State's bovine TB eradication programme has exceeded its budget each year since 2020, according to a report from the State's spending watchdog.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) said the overspend in 2020 was 17% - rising to 76% in 2024.
Total spend on the eradication programme last year by the Department of Agriculture came to just over €100 million - the highest annual amount to date.
Meanwhile, in its report the C&AG notes the cost of compensation to farmers has "significantly exceeded the budgeted amount each year of the period, rising to an excess of 136% in 2024".
€64 million in compensation was paid to farmers in 2024.
Costs for the testing and removal of reactors (animals who tested positive for bovine TB) were also significantly over the budgeted amounts (reaching €23 million last year), although other expenditure - including spending on wildlife culling and vaccination - was broadly in line with the budgeted sums.
The C&AG said the Department's revised estimate for this year provides €73.5 million for the eradication programme, "but this may be insufficient given the pattern of testing results emerging in 2025".
Bovine TB is a highly infectious, chronic disease of cattle and is typically spread through both cattle movement and direct or indirect contact between infected cattle.
Infected wildlife is also a significant source of transmission. Bovine TB presents potential risks to humans and impacts access to beef and dairy export markets.
The 2024 herd incidence rate of bovine TB was just over 6%, which was the highest incidence rate in 21 years.
The incidence rate has continued to increase this year and is projected to reach approximately 6.5% by the end of 2025, with this trend posing a serious risk to Ireland’s goal of eradication of bovine TB by 2030.
The State spending watchdog said the bovine TB eradication strategy in place up until recently "does not contain timelines for implementation of actions or interim targets to assess progress.
"The strategy notes that regular monitoring and evaluation of policies will form part of the strategy but does not address what this entails."
However, earlier this month Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon published an action plan to address the current high levels of bovine TB.
The new plan includes five measures and 30 actions, which are designed to support herds that are free of bovine TB to remain free, reduce the impact of wildlife on the spread of bovine TB, detect and eliminate bovine TB infection as early as possible in herds with a bovine TB breakdown and avoid a future breakdown.
As part of the ongoing implementation of the action plan, the Government said key targets to deliver the eradication of bovine TB will be developed.
The eradication programme had been funded by the Exchequer, the EU and a bovine disease levy paid by farmers.
The EU provided 42% of the funding for the eradication programme in 2015 but this has since fallen to zero, and the Exchequer now provides almost all of the funding, rising from a 36% share of the programme costs in 2015 to 92% in 2024.
