IT WAS during the dark days of foot-and-mouth 2001 that the prospect of passing some of the public cost of animal disease control on to farmers was first raised by then agriculture Minister Nick Brown.
Yet nine years on, after various working groups, public consultations and seminars have grappled with how responsibility and cost sharing could work in reality, the subject is shrouded in more uncertainty than ever.
As one industry veteran remarked this week, each stage of this process seems to answer some questions but raise twice as many new ones.
Arguably, the biggest one to come out of this week's Draft Animal Health Bill is whether Defra has lost control of the cost sharing element of the equation.
From the very early days, the emphasis has been on ensuring responsibility and cost sharing are intrinsically linked.
Two sides of the same coin. One policy.
Industry figures close to the process therefore fully expected the Draft Bill to cover both sides of that coin.
It was a surprised to learn the cost sharing measures would be covered at a later date under a future Treasury Bill. A 12 page Q & A on the Bill made no attempt to explain why.
It is no secret that the Treasury was unimpressed with Defra's botched attempt last summer at cost sharing proposals that included an unworkable compulsory insurance plan, now ditched, and other figures that spectacularly failed to add up.
Has the Treasury now decided that if it wants the job done properly it needs to take ownership itself?
If that is the case, do farmers have more to fear from it than the Defra they know?
All we can say with any certainty is that, while the responsibility sharing plans are taking shape, we now know less about the cost sharing side than we did before.
It appears to be back to square one. Uncertainty still reins.
