Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this important Bill. I thank all the County Mayo farmers, suppliers and those concerned with agriculture who contacted me with their valuable input into the Bill. It is long overdue legislation that has been a source of great anxiety due to the serious risks it could pose to the sector if we do not get it right. It should have been transposed by January 2022 but the delay has largely been of the Government's own making as it looked at the end of the system of allowing people designated as responsible persons, RPs, to dispense.

I am relieved the indications are that the Minister has finally accepted the opinion of all stakeholders outside the Department that the current regime operated by RPs should be maintained. I say "indications" because the fact of the matter is this legislation does not make that clear at this point. The Bill does not deliver a clear role for RPs. As my colleagues stated, the Minister has two options. Either he ensures that the VCI amends its code of practice prior to the passing of this Bill or he must accept amendments to the Bill on Committee Stage to provide RPs with a clear role within the legislation. If this is not done correctly, the Bill could have significant impacts on access to VMPs and animal health and welfare, especially in areas on the periphery with more limited access to veterinary services.

As the Minister will be aware, there is a chronic shortage of vets, especially those working with large animals in the agriculture sector in rural areas. We have allowed a situation to emerge whereby we are only training between a third and a quarter of vets that are needed. While they are being delivered in higher education, it is the Department of Agriculture that has lead responsibility in this area. It is beyond understanding that successive Ministers for agriculture would allow this situation to emerge. An evaluation of farmed animal veterinary service in Ireland in 2020 identified counties Donegal, Galway, Kerry and Mayo, the county in which I live, as having the highest number of herds more than 20 km from their nearest private veterinary practice.

The issue before us in the legislation relates to RPs. If their role in the sector is not protected, that would constitute a real threat to thousands of valuable jobs throughout rural Ireland, which simply cannot afford to lose them. The British Government availed of the derogation on the dilution of the role of RPs prior to Brexit. We cannot have a situation where we have two separate regimes for the prescribing and dispensation of VMPs on the island. Some 50% of milk and meat from the North is processed in the South and rightly labelled as Irish but that also means we need to ensure compliance with the same standards.

All of that said, it is imperative that measures are employed to tackle antimicrobial and antiparasitic resistance. This is vital for humans as well as animal health. However, these measures need to be done in a way that makes sense to the sector, rural economies and to the island as a whole.

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