Mr. Conor Geraghty:

There are two aspects. The first is to do with antimicrobials, or antibiotics as we would know them, and the second concerns antiparasitics, which is an Irish issue because we have obtained a derogation for these being prescription only up to now.

I will start with antibiotics. I might be very simplistic on this because it is a huge legislative measure. The main change is that we can no longer rely on antibiotics as a preventative. We can only used them on sick animals. The previous speakers were talking solely about mastitis and blanket dry cow therapy but that applies to all sorts of things. It applies to blanket treating animals bought in in case they get pneumonia, for example. It applies to using CTC powder for calves that might get cough and to blanket treatment for watery mouth in lambs at birth. All these practices will no longer be allowed. That is one simple thing.

The second major one is the possible restrictions on critically important antibiotics. We may not have access to all of them in the agrifood sector. There will certainly be restrictions on them and maybe a requirement on vets to have evidence that they are the only prudent thing to prescribe in certain cases. In other words, one would not be allowed to use them without a culture and sensitivity test first to say these are the only ones that can be used.

On antiparasitics, the big change for Ireland is that, rather than being licensed merchant, LM, products available in co-operatives, licensed merchants, pharmacists and vets, they will still be available in all those outlets but will only be able to be dispensed on foot of a veterinary prescription. There is a pile of other things in there that will be different but those are the main points.