The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has estimated that it cost "€660 to cull a badger" in 2024, according to a new report from the Comptroller and Auditor General. The report details that over the ten-year period to the end of 2024, TB cost DAFM "almost €500 million". "The department estimates that in 2024, it cost approximately €468 to vaccinate a captured badger and €660 to cull a badger," the report outlines. In 2024, DAFM imposed total penalties of almost €47,000 in relation to 131 herds. The Comptroller and Auditor General has put forward a number of recommendations in relation to the government's current TB eradication programme.