Mr. Hugh Farrell:

I thank Senator Paul Daly for his questions. I will start at the Border. I live only five minutes from the Border, so I know a lot about that end of things. It is just as unrealistic to think that we can have one law on one side of the Border where they can trade with freedom in whatever warehouse, store or merchant's they choose with no problems, while there are restrictions on the other side of the Border a few miles up the road and it can only be done through vets. This is discrimination against the trade. Take a responsible person such a pharmacist. These people have put in years in training and education to get this far. People put time and money towards this and suddenly it takes a note to destroy their livelihood. This happened with special needs assistants. I do not think there were too many pupils in the school the next day and there was a bit of standstill in the country. We are being treated as the quiet people and it will have to be pushed on us. Farmers are going to suffer as a result of this. The Border is a major issue. We have a problem with cross-Border trading. The biggest issues here is the availability, competition and price, the number of people it will take out of the areas. Communities are dying because people have to travel miles. As Mr. McCormack mentioned, a vet is unavailable when you get there. You might have a bit of help the day you want to do something. That is where the problem lies. Licensed merchants, pharmacists and relevant people in the business are vital parts of it for us as farmers and they must be retained. Otherwise we will end up with animal welfare problems and they will not come from overdosing; rather, they will come from under-dosing.

The studies we brought to the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, were based on a small number of farms. If it wants to do something practical or relevant and maybe go forward with this, for example, dung sampling, that can be done to get a feel for what is happening nationally and not just on a couple of farms. We know how relevant this is and that it is not an issue in many cases. This is a significant thing to go forward.

This proposal has been in front of us for the past number of years. We have met the Department on different occasions. We get so far and then it stops. It is pushed back. Within the past month or two before the new reset date, we will be called again to a meeting. This is not working. Stakeholders are not being treated properly. It is time for the Department to make the decision to continue as we are under what is proposed, go forward and retain the ability of licensed merchants and pharmacists to prescribe and dispense drugs and dosing remedies to us because that is the only we can move forward with this. That has always been the ICSA position on this. We are talking about rural Ireland and a lot of small farmers. It is alright for the big farmers and possibly the multiples but when you are talking about 20 or 30 farms to make up the numbers, we must consider that. We are going to look at areas being locked out. This is of no benefit to any of us so we must move forward on that end of it.