Ms Caroline Garvan:

Good afternoon. I thank the Cathaoirleach and the committee.

I appreciate that members have already read the statement so I will just pick out some key points. The Minster and Department are acutely aware of the impact this could potentially have on members of Merchants Alliance Ireland. We have worked steadfastly with all our stakeholders, and in particular with Merchants Alliance Ireland, to put in place mitigating actions. I will go through them and address some of the comments that were made by my colleagues previously.

We developed the national veterinary prescription system, NVPS, which is an electronic prescription system that facilitates ongoing competition in the supply chain. Farmers can access their prescriptions on that system and go wherever they wish to get them. The proper assessment protocol was mentioned. It is a niche protocol to support retailers in having an engagement and arrangement with vets to issue a prescription, but it is limited to certain circumstances. That is in the interest of animal health and welfare. Anti-parasitic resistance is a severe concern for the sustainability of the livestock sector in Ireland. Research has shown that compared with other member states - remember these are prescription only medicines in all other member states - we are losing €236 million to parasitic disease in this country. We are losing €8 million because of resistance so there is a need to regulate and the legislation requires it.

This protocol allows vets to have an arrangement with a licensed retailer to issue a prescription, thereby giving the retailer the ability to access the prescription. It has been commented that the protocol is onerous. I would suggest that prescribing anti-parasitic medicines properly is an onerous task. Quite an amount of information is needed. We have moved from the field where it used to be livestock was treated rigidly at five, eight and 13 weeks.

Now you have to have an adaptable parasite control programme which looks at all the factors that are in the protocol, all the information around the farm, the stocking density and what medicines are used. That protocol is necessarily detailed to optimise the outcomes for farmers, profitability and production.