Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The United Kingdom is a country with greater resources than Ireland and its much larger mission in Brussels was reflective of those resources, until the time it decided it had such great resources that it would leave the European Union, which was its sovereign decision. Would it be fair to say, in general terms, that if the UK entered a derogation on any legislation, be it on justice or home affairs, it would flag a certain amount of interest and the Irish delegation would at least look at what was happening to understand why it was doing it this way and whether it would be beneficial to us? In a variety of areas, regulation in Ireland is quite similar to that of the United Kingdom. If that was flagged, was a decision made in the Department at that time? It seems to me that a decision would have been made that we were either going the way of the United Kingdom at that time or we would bring in prescriptions for antiparasitics. As Deputy Cowen said, we are talking about antiparasitics, not antimicrobials.