Mr. Colm Forde:

We met with the Independent Licensed Merchants Association after our last meeting with the committee and it was quite a constructive meeting.

I assure the committee we are not sitting on any advices. In the advice we received from the licensed merchants, there are some arguments in it that may have merit and others which we are not in agreement on. For example, the legal advice did not refer to the definition of a veterinary prescription in place in this jurisdiction. As I said previously, the clear derogation in the European regulations is that unless one allowed someone other than a vet to prescribe prior to 2019, one cannot allow that now. Maybe that was a gap in the legal advice.

However, we have forwarded the legal opinion from the licensed merchants on to the Attorney General's office. We have asked it to fully consider that in the detailed advice it gives back to us. I assure the committee we liaised with the Attorney General's office both last week and today to see if there has been any move because we wanted that advice before today's meeting. We were advised that due to resource and other work pressures, it has not been in a position to finalise those advices yet.