Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will go back to a point Senator Daly made. In practice, out there on farms, especially, say, from the last week of January to now, there is lambing going on, an awful lot of calving going on and cows with mastitis. On a dairy farm, at seven or eight o'clock in the evening, the farmer will be milking his cows under an awful lot of pressure for labour. How will the service be provided such that when an animal wants an antibiotic, it will get it within a very short time? I would like the witnesses to elaborate a little more on that. No matter how well managed a farm is, there will, unfortunately, be problems at various stages. A cow can get mastitis for any variety of reasons. It is perfectly understandable and obvious that in the case of a difficult calving, the vet has to be called, but then there are treatments that are fairly routine for farmers but which have to be done in the interest of the animal's health. If not done quickly, the animal's health will deteriorate very quickly. I see the vets around my part of the country for those three or four months of the spring. They are under maximum pressure. The only ones who look as tired as the farmer after the spring are the vets.

How will it work in practice that the call will be able to be taken and the proper treatment will be available quickly for the animal, first, from an animal welfare point of view and, second, from an economic point of view and to avoid unnecessary losses? Will the witnesses again go through how they think this will work in practice? I think it will bring significant extra cost to the administration of drugs but I would like to see how it could work physically.