Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to follow on from the point the Chair made. It is well known that I am a suckler farmer and the Chair is a dairy farmer. The Chair highlighted the business of a dairy farm in the months of February, March and even into April. That is the very time the suckler farmer will be considering putting out his or her cattle and will want them treated for parasites before putting them out. It will double up the workload at that particular time. Based on what was said here, when vets are under pressure, we have been led to believe here that a consultation over the phone will suffice for the provision of a prescription. I fail to see why a consultation with the responsible person is not identical. If it is basically the farmer making the observation, giving his or her observed diagnosis over the phone to a veterinary surgeon, then I do not see the difference in the farmer doing the same to a person behind the counter at the merchants, who is a responsible person and is recognised as a responsible person by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and is suitably qualified as per the definition and restrictions of the Department. What Mr. Moffitt has just said is basically that when under pressure, when time constraints are of the essence, his people will give a prescription for product over the phone to a farmer based on the farmer's own observation and diagnosis. Will the witnesses please tell me then what is the difference in a responsible, suitably qualified person doing the same when it is in essence the farmer who will be making the diagnosis?