Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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This amendment seeks to take account of concerns raised with us by pharmacists regarding what they consider to be a fundamental issue in respect of their prescribing of veterinary medicines. We agreed as a committee that there is a need for a particular solution for pharmacists, given the code of conduct of the Veterinary Council of Ireland prohibits them from having professional relationships. In other words, they cannot have a vet on hand to write prescriptions. The purpose of the amendment is to allow the Minister, in the first instance, to make additional product prescriptions exempt for pharmacists. A contradiction arises here in that the advice being given to people is to seek advice from their pharmacists rather than going straight to their GPs, whereas farmers are being sent first to their vets for a prescription and then to pharmacists to dispense veterinary medicinal products, including vaccines. Pharmacists are well and adequately qualified to manage such prescribing. I am disappointed the Minister will not accept this amendment and is not proposing to bring forward any other proposal to address this anomaly, which has been highlighted to us by an important sector.