Dr. J.G. Beechinor:

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine invited the HPRA to join a meeting along with the UK's Veterinary Medicines Directorate and we have set up a regular schedule of such meetings into the future. That deals with what could be described as common issues. The HPRA plays a supportive role in those meetings to assist the Department in terms of issues that may affect the availability or monitoring of veterinary medicines. We have had excellent relations with the UK over the years, particularly in the period when it was a member of the EU. We used to meet our UK counterparts very regularly at different fora. They were part of the European Medicines Agency committees, so we met them on a monthly basis there. We also had regular meetings outside of that, at the heads of medicines agencies committee, which meets on average four times a year. Obviously since Brexit the UK has dropped out of that network but to answer the Deputy's question, we have side-bar meetings in place with the UK, separately. The HPRA and the regulatory authorities in the UK have put in place systems to make sure that we can deal with common areas. About 50% of the veterinary medicines on the market today have a common label with the UK. The Irish market is smaller than the UK market, relatively speaking, but what we would like to do is to keep those products with a common label because that will help with availability, to the benefit of everyone in Ireland. The short answer to the question is yes, we have regular meetings.

I will ask my colleague, Dr. Murphy, to speak about the issue of investment. There are incentives in the new legislation which might be of interest to the committee.