Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 October 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Photo of Paul DalyPaul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives of the Department for their attendance. I will make four or five statements, coupled with questions. Perhaps I will go through them all at once because some of the answers may be interlinked and if we go over and back, we may get bogged down in one issue and I will not cover the others.

This regulation was introduced in Europe on 27 January 2019. It is now 6 October 2021 and the regulation is due to be enacted on 22 January. How did we get here with very little progress made? Two and a half years, or more, have passed. We are now at the eleventh hour and we are still talking about it, with no concrete, definitive solution on the table. How did that happen? How did we get here?

I would like our guests to elaborate and answer a few questions on a couple of points arising from their submission.

They continually refer to extensive stakeholder engagement. Can they confirm that the last stakeholder meeting was in April, which is five months ago? What progress in finding a solution to this problem has been made since April without any further negotiations with the stakeholders? I find it hard to believe that they would believe there has been extensive stakeholder engagement when we are reaching the eleventh hour when it comes to decision-making and there has not been a meeting in six months.

What is the Department proposing in its national veterinary prescription system? Is it a one-off prescription for the year? When is it done? Will there be a charge to the farmer? What costs are associated? At this juncture, on 6 October, do the officials believe that even if all stakeholders, farmers, merchants, pharmacists, vets and departmental officials are happy with that system that it could be operational by 22 January? I have monitored progression on this issue very closely since the outset and have had contact with stakeholders from all sides. The word on the street is that the vets are not buying into this. Without the vets buying into it, it will not happen.

What solution can we come up with? The vets are saying they do not have the technology. Can the technology be developed and in place in every veterinary practice by 22 January? I do not think so. They do not have the staff to provide the service especially during calving times and during peak seasons. Even if every other stakeholder were happy, the vets are saying they could not implement this by 22 January. In that scenario, what happens on 22 January?

I ask the officials to comment on their legal opinion on decoupling especially from a European perspective. Decoupling exists in Sweden and Denmark and it has been proven in all analysis that they have achieved the best rate of reducing antimicrobial and antiparasitic resistance. I am not promoting decoupling or suggesting it may be the best solution, but it certainly should not be taken off the table when it has been proven to be the model that is working best in other European countries where it has been enacted.

While we can argue and say it is illegal, we know if this is not solved properly, we will have an influx of product from the North of Ireland under the shelf, down the back roads illegally. It is going to happen; the dogs on the streets will know about it. On numerous occasions the Department's submission stressed that we need to be seen to be portraying the best-quality traceability and best production processes for the beef and other food we are exporting. Once Bord Bia's customers throughout the world realise that there is not an all-island health policy in Ireland and that product can be brought, albeit illegally, from one jurisdiction to another, more than likely administered and for obvious reasons because of where it came from not recorded in any traceability procedures, that will ring alarm bells with our customers all over the world. That will do our product much more harm than the good we are trying to achieve here. I ask the officials to comment on that.

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