Ms Paula Barry Walsh:

I thank the Chairman for his patience. I had hoped it would help clarify some of the matters. I will defer to my colleague, Mr. Colm Forde, on the question relating to the Irish Co-Operative Organisation Society, ICOS, interaction on action point No. 6 in the antiparasitic stakeholder group.

I will mention the draft at EU level and why the responsible persons, RPs, were not defended. Ireland was an active member in the negotiations with Brussels. Various different members from the Department, who I will not name, drew up the policies through consultation, not only in-house but also at a wider level with industry, even at that time. The regulation has been largely transposed. In other words, like what was put in during 2007, when responsible persons were introduced to dispense antiparasitics, that could continue under the current situation. However, even the older regulation had a caveat on it, that is, that it complied with a specific part of the derogation regarding antiparasitic resistance. When the negotiations were finished, RPs were still doing the job they had always done.

However, it was around that time that the HPRA, through its task force, did an examination of data and of various research that was available. Through that research, it determined that there was no longer compliance with the directive. It was on that basis that the antiparasitics moved into the sphere of requiring a prescription. There was no question that the responsible persons were not defended. The other point about it is that the responsible persons do more than give out antiparasitics. They are also involved in another interaction with their clients on a professional level in dispensing and retailing other products. In the future, it would be envisaged that where a prescription for an antiparasitic would go to a licensed merchant, which is the situation we are striving to maintain in the Department, the responsible person would have a role in the dispensing of the prescriptions that would be issued on foot of antiparasitics. That deals with the second part of the question. I will defer to my colleague for the first part.