Mr. Ray Doyle:

It actually is as simple as amending the statutory instrument. That will then comply with objectives 2 and 3 of the regulation to increase competitiveness. With the way the statutory instrument is written, vaccines have been excluded. Why is this? We all need to drive down antimicrobial and antiparasitic usage. The only tool to do that is the increased use of vaccines. We are allowed to dispense licensed merchant, LM, vaccines, but the Department has decided in its wisdom that it cannot allow us to dispense the POM vaccines even though we are dispensing POM antiparasitics now. We are good enough to dispense POM antiparasitics and the older vaccines, but we cannot be allowed to dispense the POM vaccines. That is not credible when we are faced with trying to decrease the usage of antimicrobials and antiparasitics and increase competition. How does it increase competition or even keep competition in place if 75% of the route to market is already controlled by the veterinary channel? How is it competitive to decrease that further?