Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will get straight to it. We have been here before. I am a veteran of this committee and the witnesses have been here before. The last time they were here, we ended up writing a substantial report on this subject. I read Mr. Doyle's opening statement but let us get on the record that there seems to be an impasse at this stage. We went through the regulation and there was an statutory instrument, then an introduction and a deferral. There was lot going on, and nothing going on. From my reading of it, there seems to be a breakdown in the non-therapeutic side of things being highlighted in the statutory instrument or regulation. There is the issue with vaccinations and as a farmer I can state, the future is vaccinations. To quote from the aim of the regulation, it is“to stimulate innovation in and increase the availability of veterinary medicinal products". That covers the witnesses in every way. Innovation is vaccinations and it is the future. If the witnesses are knocked out of the area based on what they are saying, there is going to be less availability, and it is then going to be a monopoly. Bearing in mind that there are people with vested interests in this who we will hear from today, can the witnesses fill us in as to what has happened since we started this, how we got to where we are and how they see it being solved? As I said, the big issues I see from this submission are the non-therapeutic side, the vaccine side, the NVPS, and the fact co-ops do not seem to get prescriptions, what happened before with the antimicrobial question, and the role of vets. Why can co-ops not employ a vet to give prescriptions? Is it not the same thing? A vet is a vet.