Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 12 November 2020
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products: Discussion
Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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We will not get this finished because I am under strict instructions to finish within two hours. We had a meeting with the Ceann Comhairle and we were given strict orders. I get growled at here from my left as well. There are huge anxieties, worries, concerns and misgivings about the route we are going. The witnesses have been asked a lot of questions. We will have to have another session on this. It is significant issue for the agriculture industry. Everyone is raising issues out of genuine concern. All of us as public representatives are getting many representations on this issue. There are major concerns about issues such as animal welfare, the availability of vets and the lack of competitiveness. We can get into residues and, as I said, the post-mortems in factories are a huge factor in showing whether dosing regimes are working on farms. We have a lot more work to do on this.
I thank the witnesses for their presentations. Strenuous questions were coming in from the floor but that came from the anxiety and concerns we have about what is being proposed.
Do we have time to go into private session? I am told I have to adjourn. There are issues to be dealt with in private session. We might organise a Zoom meeting to deal with them. Is that okay? We will not do it this evening but in the near future. We are meeting next Tuesday at 4 o'clock. We might try to do it at 3 p.m. or 3.15 p.m. and have a half an hour before the meeting. We will say 3 p.m. because we have a few items to address. Is that agreeable to everyone?