Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Further to the deliberations, I am seeking clarification on a number of issues that were raised. Deputy Fitzmaurice referred to the proposal of it being allowable for the vet to upload the information up to five days after the dispensing. I am speaking here as a farmer as much as a public representative. Is it the case that if I have an issue at home and I ring my vet, and both of us are busy, he is not going to say, knowing that he has five days: "Call to the office, I will ring the girl or fellow in the office, you collect the bottle and do your job and I will put it up on the system in the next five days." How is the licensed merchant going to compete with that? That is the first issue I have with what was stated earlier.

The second issue is a serious one. As a public representative and an administrator, I cannot stand over what the was stated earlier, namely, that it would be at the discretion of or up to the vet to decide whether to give an annual prescription or whether the vet could tell the farmer that due to way he operates, the latter will have to get a prescription every time. It was suggested that a farmer could go to another vet down the road. If he lived where I live, he would be going a long way down the road to get a second vet. I am lucky to have one nearby. This is not going to work. I say that as a farmer. I try to be a politician here but, ultimately, I am representing farmers. This is not going to work; it cannot work. I cannot stand over this. The Department is leaving it wide open to the vet to make the decision.

There might be one vet who will come out, carry out the herd test and he will probably even do a health management plan with the farmer, which is what we should be doing here. There should be a health management plan on the day of the herd test. I appreciate that there would have to be some alternative for sheep. The farmer and the vet could put a little time aside on the day of the herd test and do a health management plan for the year. The farmer has the prescription and then can go wherever he or she wishes. It is not a case of making a telephone call to a vet who is somewhere calving a cow and who says: "Go in and collect the bottle and I will do up the prescription afterwards". The relevant witness stated that there will be fair play for all the suppliers, including the licensed merchants. How will that work in the circumstances to which I refer? They are gone. It is not only the responsible person, but his boss and his business. They are closing their doors. In the part of the country I come from, it is a small outfit in a one-horse town. The bigger operations might survive, but small outfits need the parasitic medicines they are selling at present to keep their businesses open. When they go, it is not just that one goes to the big town to get one's medicines or one gets them directly from the vet. There is nowhere to get one's paling stakes, wire or batteries for the electric fence. The Department is going to wipe that out.

This will not work, and I cannot stand over it. The witnesses' answers have been very vague. As I said, it is letting the vet make the decision. If this happens, the annual prescription has to be written into it - end of story. The vet does not make up his mind on the run. The five-day aspect will be a major issue. I appreciate what was said about somebody coming in a 4.55 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday evening and the information is not put up immediately. That is okay if the prescription is handed over and it is available in the merchant's premises. If that is the situation with the vet - I realise I am repeating myself but this is important enough to repeat it for a third time - and he is out doing a section and can say on the mobile telephone, "Call into my office, collect the bottle and I will do the paperwork afterwards", how can the witnesses say that the system will be competitive for the merchants or the co-operatives? They will be gone. The witnesses are writing off rural Ireland here.

Third, if this was going to work, and it will not, what awareness campaign has been done with farmers? How many farmers know what is facing them if they decide to dose a few cattle next February before putting them out to some early grass? They will be in the licensed merchants or in the pharmacies where they will not be able to be served because they will be told they need a prescription. They do not know that. No awareness campaign has been carried out. There is no preparation. The system is not ready to run. It was stated that the web prescribing system would create competition, but now it is being stated that paper prescriptions will also be acceptable. If one goes to the vet to get the paper prescription and one is in his office and the stuff is right there on the shelf, one will buy it there even though it might be a fiver dearer. It saves one driving another two miles down the road with the prescription. This is not working.

The witnesses need to contact Brussels in the morning and say that we need a two-year extension to get this right. We are not prepared. That is in the interests of the stakeholders, in the interests of dealing with antimicrobial and antiparasitic resistance correctly, properly and efficiently, in the interests of animal welfare and in the interests of not closing down rural Ireland. I formally propose that the committee write to the Minister and make a request or demand, at this late stage and given that we are so far away from a workable solution, that there be a two-year extension in order to ensure we get this right, once and for all.