Mr. Tim Drea:

I know the question of the authorised officers came up before. There are no formal qualifications necessary for authorised officers. The Minister authorises officers to carry out regulatory functions across all of our areas. We treat IHRB authorised officers like our own authorised officers. There are couple of important points about authorised officers. Authorised officers in the context of the IHRB act as part of a team. While there are concerns about individual qualifications, the legislation underpinning this authorisation is the veterinary medicines legislation. It requires people who carry out any of the functions of an authorised officer are authorised to do so. I think in the last session there was a discussion around an example of five or six people arriving to a racing premises to carry out an inspection. All those people need to be authorised officers. For example, the man who stands at the back gate to make sure a lorry does not drive out needs to be an authorised officer. He does not need to be a vet. That is how my division functions, and has functioned for years. The division I manage has all four streams of Department staff. All of them are authorised officers. Basically, the requirement to be an authorised officer is to have the capacity to fulfil the duties of the job. In the case of IHRB, that would be to have a knowledge of horse racing and to have experience in a role in the IHRB. Maybe this information will help members understand about the qualifications and the authorised officers.