Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Very good. I am in the hands of the Chair.

I thank the committee for the invitation and opportunity to speak this evening as it engages in pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. Unfortunately, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, cannot be here present for understandable reasons but, on his behalf, I thank the members for facilitating an early discussion on this topic because it is a key priority of the Department and because there are measures in it that he is seeking to have in place for the start of next year.

I am joined by my officials, whose names have been listed by the Chair. They will be here for the course of the meeting. The officials dealing with fertiliser will join us later if we reach that element.

The Bill proposes to introduce legislation that deals with two distinct aspects of agricultural life. First, it is to provide for powers to make regulations on areas that recent EU regulations on veterinary medicines left to be determined by national law, such as the retailing of veterinary medicines, for the introduction of a national veterinary prescription system, NVPS; repeal the Animal Remedies Act 1993; and modernise the legislation that governs the general veterinary medicine area. Second, the Bill will amend the Fertilisers, Feeding Stuffs and Mineral Mixtures Act 1955 by inserting new registration requirements and related provisions to enable the collection and processing of information on the manufacture, importation, sale, supply and use of fertiliser in the State.

With specific regard to the area of veterinary medicinal products and medicated feed, I wish to make some key points. The Bill is important for farmers and the wider agriculture industry. I stress that the priority of the Department from the outset has been to strike a balance between the continued availability of these products at a reasonable price for farmers, meeting regulatory requirements and protecting the rural economy.

A growing understanding of the risks of antimicrobial resistance, AMR, is among the key drivers for recent changes in EU legislation in this area. As members will be well aware, AMR poses significant challenges to society and the Irish farming sector. Responsible use of antimicrobial products in food-producing animals is a key element in helping to combat resistance. This Bill, together with SI 36 of 2022 – the European Union (Veterinary Medicinal Products and Medicated Feed) Regulations 2022, which gives effect to EU Regulations 2019/4 and 2019/6 – is a key step in dealing with the challenge of AMR.

The committee previously reviewed the EU regulations in detail and issued a comprehensive report in 2021. In drafting this Bill, which deals with matters that were left to national discretion, the recommendations of the committee were taken into account.

In addition to the implementation of certain matters of national competence as permitted by EU Regulation 2019/4 on medicated feed and Regulation 2019/6 on veterinary medicinal products, one of the main elements in the Bill is the provision of a statutory basis for the introduction of a national veterinary prescription system, NVPS, which will facilitate the electronic generation and dispensing of prescriptions of veterinary medicines for food-producing animals. This will provide greater assurance as to the traceability and use of veterinary medicinal products and in so doing, protect animal and human health and support consumer confidence. The introduction of this electronic system will also provide greater choice for farmers when getting prescriptions dispensed. This has been a central consideration of my Department in drafting this legislation. The Bill will make it mandatory for all veterinary prescriptions to be generated electronically using the NVPS. The system, in this current phase of development, will facilitate the recording of veterinary prescriptions by a registered veterinarians across eight food-producing animal species. It also caters for the dispensing of any such prescription, where appropriate, from a registered dispensing outlet such as a licensed merchant, co-operative or pharmacist outlet.

The NVPS is a free to use, standalone system to both prescribers or dispensers. However, my Department has worked alongside existing prescribing and dispensing software providers to allow them to integrate seamlessly with the NVPS. My Department has been engaging with stakeholders in relation to the NVPS since November 2020, both bilaterally and in multi-stakeholder forums. The significant communications campaign has recently escalated, most notably at the 2022 ploughing championships. The team is planning further engagements in the coming weeks and months with both veterinary practitioners and dispensers around the country regarding training and use of the NVPS. It is planned that NVPS will be extended to companion animals in time.

Turning to the second part of the Bill-----