Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Less money for lawyers is always good.

I will put two specific questions to the Minister. I understand that he plans to introduce a statutory instrument relating to the veterinary medicines regulation. I do not know where his deliberations on that are. The committee has met on the matter a number of times. The two main issues that have been raised with us are, first, the ability of farmers to receive a 12-month prescription under which they could go to their local trader or merchant if needs be and there would not be a sense of obligation and, second, the need for some types of medicine to be stockpiled on farms in areas where they might be needed quickly, for example, during calving season. Is it the Minister's intention to cater for these two issues in the statutory instrument and does he plan to publish a draft before he enacts it so that committees such as ours can interact with it?