Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Before the officials come in on this, this is a political charge but it is against the Department in terms of the structure because the criteria changed because we allowed it to change. Therein lies the problem. Nobody seemed to see it or, if they did, they kept it to themselves. I would like to know which it is. I do not know if I will ever be able to find the answer to that. The officials of the Department and the officials from the permanent representation may have realised that the criteria that allowed the derogation to be in place would be undone as a result of the new regulations. Did they inform the Minister of the day? They certainly did not bring it to the attention of members of the European Parliament that I am aware of. Did they believe, to give them the benefit of the doubt, that the new criteria would still allow for responsible persons to be able to dispense these products on the basis that they had already been doing so, as was the case in and the interpretation of our nearest neighbours when they were applying the law?

Let me ask two questions relating to that. Essentially, if one were to take what the regulation aims to do or what the stated objective is, to reduce the use of these products in order to ensure that we do not have unnecessary resistance building up, it has been implemented for a number of products. The Minister of State might give me clarification as to precisely their number. We have heard evidence from the co-operatives, the licensed merchants and the pharmacy unions, all of which state that their sales of those products have reduced by 60% to 90%, depending on the organisation. Is the Minister of State aware of what overall sales now look like compared to beforehand?