Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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To be brutally honest and frank, I am very much taken aback. I would worry about where we are going if departmental officials answer a question by saying they are new and were not in post at the time. Bureaucracy and paper trails cause a lot of problems, but all the paper trails are there. If I had only been in a Department for five minutes, I would have my homework done before addressing a committee. If that is the Department's attitude when its officials appear to address such a vitally important issue, it is definitely compounding the problems.

I would like to return to Senator Boyhan's question. I have been reliably informed that a request for an economic impact assessment was made by ILMA. Can the Department confirm or deny that it carried out an economic impact assessment of this regulation's effect on veterinary practices and sales of medicinal products? The witnesses may not know this. They may have to come back to me on another day. I need confirmation of when and why the Department decided not to defend the current distribution system whereby it regulates the trade through responsible persons. That system has been working. MEPs voted for the status quo. Based on the information that has been put before the committee, the Department's vets in Brussels went on a solo run and took the opposite line from that taken by the Irish MEPs. Why and when did the Department change its attitude towards the status quo, which is working?

I am frustrated when I think about why we are here this evening. It seems that a hurdle has been put before us and rather than jump it, we are going to bow down before it. We are going to create a situation where different regulatory set-ups will apply North and South of the Border after Brexit. Every Department is currently working night and day to try get regulations changed, to carry out preparatory work and to put systems in place to maintain as much regulatory alignment on the island of Ireland as is humanly possible. It seems the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is lying down in front of a small hurdle and allowing totally divergent regulatory regimes to emerge on the island. It has been highlighted in the first presentation to the committee.

We have spent the past two weeks discussing a forestry crisis. Prevention is better than cure. If the derogation is not availed of when this regulation is implemented, I can guarantee here and now that whoever is on this committee a year, 18 months or two years from now will be discussing another crisis. They will be wondering how to unravel it and how they got there. We can avoid that by implementing the derogation or something similar to it. Perhaps the legal advice will state that for whatever reason we cannot avail of the derogation. The Department needs to start working to defend the Irish farmer, not working for Brussels. It is time to put on the green jersey. If there is a problem, we must get out there and solve it. There are ways around this. There will have to be. Every other Department is solving problems and changing regulations to maintain alignment. Why is the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine not doing the same?