Ms Hazel Sheridan:

On compulsory farm inspections, within the remit of the official controls regulation, there will be a responsibility on us as the competent authority to carry out checks to ensure compliance with the regulation. The animal health regulation lays down the rules on the identification of animals and so forth. Farmers are used to having these inspections and this will continue to be provided for under the official controls regulation.

One of the new provisions in the animal health regulation is the requirement for animal health visits, which is causing concern among some member states. The visit will involve a veterinarian advising a farmer on biosecurity and how to protect his or her animals from disease. Most of the livestock farms in this country already have regular inspections by veterinarians for welfare, TB testing and other matters. It is not envisaged that these animal health visits will be something extra on top of existing visits. It will just be an expansion of existing visits to cover the important aspects of biosecurity and disease prevention and control.

As I stated, the focus of this regulation is that prevention is better than cure. It is more cost effective to stop a disease coming in rather than dealing with it once it is here. It is about getting farmers to be more aware of what they need to do to protect their herds and flocks. Most professional farmers would be very clear on the need for this already.

This relates to Senator O'Keeffe's point that it sounds like a heavy burden. It is not a heavy burden. It is formalising what already exists because most professional farmers will understand that to buy in animals from unregulated sources is a substantial risk in terms of disease transmission. It is accepted in the regulation that professional farmers know this. There is a requirement for training but it is accepted that farmers who have been farming for generations have that knowledge and it is not envisaged that there would be something extra imposed on them. It is saying that there is a responsibility on operators to understand how disease is transmitted and how they can protected their herds and flocks from it. The regulation attempts to do that.

In terms of the same standards applying within the EU and to products coming into the EU, the animal health regulation lays down rules on imports of live animals and products of animal origin, which can also transmit animal diseases. The principle is that products or animals coming in will have to meet EU standards. Those rules are built on four pillars - the listing of countries; the listing and approval of establishments; laying down animal health requirements that animals or products will have to meet; and the requirement for certificates to accompany imports of animals and products. The final component will be official checks that would be carried out at border inspection posts of the EU.

Deputy Martin Ferris asked about compensation. None of the regulations we are dealing with today deals with financial compensation, which is dealt with solely under the financial regulation. There is a fundamental linkage between animal health regulation and financial regulation in that there will be a veterinary fund to provide for the control and prevention of the diseases listed in the animal health regulation. The financial regulation is the same as the rest of the regulations and its details are still being worked out.

Senator O'Neill asked whether the five-year timescale is too long. It seems a long timescale. On the plant health regulation the Commission is adopting a slightly different approach where it is doing the general principles and the delegated and implementing acts in parallel. That is a huge workload and the Commission has only a certain number of staff working on these. It is logical to first agree the principles and then examine the details. It is such a very large task, for example in animal health alone it is 40 directives and regulations, bringing in all the requirements, having discussions and agreeing them. It would be hard to get that done in less than five years.

On the animal health regulation provisions as they relate to veterinary medicines and other veterinary medicinal products, it does not relate to residues. The provisions in the regulation relate to the use of these products for disease prevention and control. For example, every time there is an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the UK there is a discussion on whether emergency vaccination should be used to control the disease rather than slaughtering herds. The regulation is providing in a very general principle sense for the use of emergency vaccination or antibiotics.

Animal health regulation has no involvement in the regulation of animal remedies. That is a separate regulation which is not part of this package. The same applies to animal welfare, which is dealt with in a separate legislation and is not part of this package. The animal health regulation is about the control of animal diseases only.

Senator O'Keeffe asked a good question about the application to pet and wild animals. It regulates for this in the context of controlling diseases of EU significance. We had a recent outbreak of bluetongue disease on the European Continent, which is transmitted by a vector, biting insects. The suite of controls for bluetongue includes measures such as using products to try to kill off the vectors. The regulation provides for these controls. It is not trying to suddenly legislate for all the diseases in pet animals, but provides a mechanism to deal with pet animals which are involved in a disease being transmitted to farm animal or to humans. That is related to my initial statement that this is preparing for the future. It is setting down a set of principles that, hopefully, will last the community for ten to 30 years and deal with all possible future eventualities.

I have dealt with the responsibility of farmers. It is not envisaged that this is anything new. We understand how technology can be a challenge, particularly for small farmers. At the same time at the heart of this regulation is a need for rapid transfer of information on where animal diseases are. The only way to do that is through electronic means. It is at a very early stage. There is mention of the transfer of information but the details are very broad. Only in the next five years, when we see how those broad principles are translated into detailed rules, will we be able to work out the implications for individual operators.

The Chairman raised mandatory reduction in antibiotic usage. None of the regulations under this deals with that issue. It is dealt with under the animal remedies regulations. On high profile cases where there have been incidents relating to herd health, the focus of this regulation is on transmissible diseases, caused by viruses, bacteria or whatever, that are of international significance. Its focus is primarily on transmissible diseases. It provides emergency measures for other types of hazards for animal health in a general context, so there are some general rules.