Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I am uncomfortable. I do not like monopolies. I watched the whole proceedings and I know the officials are uncomfortable. They are doing a job for the Department and the Minister of State and they are here with him this evening. I do not like monopolies and I never have. Any time you have a monopoly you have a problem. I listened to officials from the Department of Health and other Departments in years gone by saying nobody but a doctor or nurse could give an injection in this country. When Covid came they brought in laypeople. They brought in anybody who could give an injection and they were allowed give injections. Anybody who could do anything in the area of health could do it.

I have been uncomfortable since this debate started a few months ago. I am asking the officials to go back again. I am asking the Minister of State to revisit this whole monopoly. I do not like monopolies. As the previous speakers have said, agriculture is supposed to be being dealt with on an all-Ireland level. People are people and if people along the Border are able to go into Northern Ireland they will be able to get whatever they want to get. They will be able to get prescribed whatever they want to get prescribed. If a chemist, a wholesaler or whoever wants to sell them the goods, they will be sold. Until we can have this on an all-Ireland basis, we should not be bringing forward this legislation. I do not like the way the legislation is being introduced. The Department was having many discussions with different veterinary organisations and then all of a sudden it went flat. Now the Department has made a decision it is going to push this through. I am saying it is not going to and I am asking the officials to reconsider. There is going to be chaos in December if they push this through. I am just very uncomfortable.

I have been in business all my life. The departmental officials spoke about the leniency of the Department and how good it is. I have never found the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine too lenient. I have dealt with a lot of farmers for 30 years and the Department is the most unreasonable outfit there ever was when it comes to the rural environment protection scheme and every other type of scheme. Then there is what the Department does to farmers over the mistakes they make and the kind of penalties it puts on them. I am uncomfortable. I support the Minister of State and want to get this legislation through. I do not like it and have not from the beginning. I do not like monopolies and hate to see people being put out of business. I am from rural Ireland and this is going to have a major effect there. It is going to have a major effect on jobs, on chemists and on animal welfare. The officials will talk about animal welfare and everything else but we are all about health and animal welfare. This is not well thought out. The Department should go back and try to get a derogation. This legislation should get put off, certainly for this year. It is something the Minister of State and the Department should look at again.