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

I will follow up on some points Deputy Cowen was pursuing. The first is to comment that the North is in line with EU regulations and is compliant with EU veterinary medical products regulations because they avail of the derogation contained within those because their equivalent of responsible persons have had the historical right to prescribe and, therefore, it fits in. The difficulty is that we in this State did not do that when the British put in place the system whereby responsible persons are prescribing. I have heard nothing to suggest that was anything other than either an oversight on the part of the Department or a belief within the Department that the role carried out by the responsible persons in pharmacists, licensed merchants, co-operatives and in veterinary practices was akin to prescribing. I believe it was the latter and that it was an expectation on the part of the Irish authorities that the derogation would apply. That is a matter of conjecture and opinion at this point.

Do witnesses believe the interpretation of this new legislation will lead to a divergence in the level of antiparasitic resistance North and South? As the North will be operating on the basis that responsible persons will be prescribing and dispensing, as has always been the case, and the South will not, the witnesses must look forward to being vindicated because we will see the evidence of that very quickly. Is that not fair to say?