Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In terms of the One Health Initiative, Deputy Harty organised a meeting here yesterday on microbiomes and antibiotic resistance. In the context of agricultural practices feeding into human health and environmental health, would it be a good idea to have an Oireachtas committee that meshes these issues together? I sit on the health committee but we never discuss the effect of the world of agriculture on the world of human health. There seems to be a lack of connectivity in that regard. Issues like water run-off, slurry being spread on land and so on all feed into this. We had the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in before us recently and we discussed drug residues, both illicit and legal, in our water table. It seems strange to me that the Oireachtas does not have a joined-up, whole world approach to this involving the EPA and the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Health all working together and feeding through the same information. There is no point in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine doing great work, gathering data on antibiotics if pharmaceutical and human health interests are not using it. Does Mr. Gleeson understand my point?