Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 5:

In page 9, line 33, to delete “prescription and dispensing” and substitute “prescription, dispensing and prescription endorsement”.

Amendment No. 5 will expand on the phrase “prescription and dispensing” and substitute “prescription, dispensing and prescription endorsement”. The Minister will know that prescription endorsement is an important aspect that straddles prescription and dispensation. In the stakeholder engagement, pharmacists highlighted the need to ensure that this is an area that is covered by primary legislation in order that the Minister can be empowered to make regulation in this regard. This is to ensure that in the case of partial or repeat prescriptions, dispensation amounts and dates are fully recorded for future reference.

Amendment No. 6 would make the following change: "In page 10, line 10, after "feed" to insert", including the timeframe in which the recording of a prescription within the NVPS must occur'." The Minister will know that one of the key concerns of stakeholders is that in the event that veterinarians may not be able to upload any prescription in the field, perhaps because of poor mobile service or another reason, there could be a time lag as to when they would be able to access products, which could lead to farmers having the sense that they must purchase immediately from the veterinarian. Obviously, we all hope the implementation of the NVPS on lead prescriptions will go smoothly. It is important that the Minister can be able to revisit this and potentially introduce mandatory timelines if he feels that is necessary further down the line.

Amendment No. 7 gets to the crux of the issue we have been discussing for some time and suggests the insertion of the following subsection:

(i) providing for the prescribing of anti-parasitic veterinary medicinal products and vaccines by veterinary practitioners whereby a veterinary practitioner does not have a client-patient-practice-relationship with the person to whom the prescription is issued.

The Minister will know that every stakeholder in every sector we have discussed this with feels the regulation is unworkable. They told us that. We outlined in our own report how we felt this could be addressed. The Minister told us that it was not possible to move to that position. As a result, amendment No. 7 represents a compromise. The amendment would address the issue that has been raised by licensed merchants and others. It would achieve this by allowing a veterinarian to issue a prescription for these products when not on a farm. Effectively, a person could go into his or her local merchant as normal, and the veterinarian working at the local merchant could be contacted and issued a prescription to be dispensed by the responsible person. Obviously, this is a point of discussion on which we have deliberated as a committee. I know the Minister has been engaged in several conversations in that vein. To us, this is the pivotal aspect of this piece of legislation and these deliberations. If we can get this issue right and get this amendment accepted then many of the concerns that have been raised with us can be addressed. Does the Cathaoirleach also want me to discuss amendment No. 8?