Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 11 October 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
General Scheme of the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed)
Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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As I outlined earlier, we are not sitting in the dark about the Attorney General's advice. As recently as last week we received a new legal opinion from stakeholders. As I pointed out earlier, if I came in here tonight and said, "We had a quick look at it, we are not accepting it and we are not giving it the due consideration that it is worth", then we would be having a different discussion and, rightly, members would have a right go at me for that. I reassure the committee that we received the advice recently and we are giving the advice its due consideration. We are going through the advice with a fine-tooth comb to see if it can work and are assessing whether we believe it would stand up to the regulatory scrutiny experienced by all legislation. That is why we do not have absolute clarity on that legal point tonight.