Results 3,361-3,380 of 7,789 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Financial Resolutions 2021 - Budget Statement 2022 (12 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I welcome the opportunity to speak. It is welcome that the thresholds for the carer's allowance have been lifted a bit. My honest opinion is that anybody who gives up a job to mind someone belonging to them as a carer should not be means tested because the service such a person does for the State is unbelievable. I also welcome the move on childcare. The devil will be in the detail and...

Financial Resolutions 2021 - Budget Statement 2022 (12 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What about rural dwellers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the officials for coming before us. They spoke about co-operatives, merchants and vets. Have they met the responsible persons?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I know that. Have the witnesses met them?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Have the witnesses met the responsible persons around the country and have they looked at the impact on their careers and livelihoods, as distinct from their employers, be they co-operatives, vets or merchants?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: So the witnesses have met them to go through that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: If they are working for me, it is my business I am looking at, not them. I am talking specifically about them. Have the witnesses met the body of people referred to as responsible persons? Basically, they are the people who are have authority to give the products out. What is the impact of this on them as a group?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does Dr. Corkery not think that this is not great for consultation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, but the door is closed at this stage. Let us be honest. We heard back from the veterinary side of it three or four months ago that the game is up and that the Department was driving on with it. There is no point in doing it to say "Well, we met this one and the other one". There is no point doing it at the last minute. This should have been done months ago. As I listened to Senator...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The e-prescribing system is probably not ready. From everything I have read, it is my understanding that vets will be allowed to upload up to five days after dispensing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It is our understanding that they are being allowed to upload up to five days after dispensing. Is this correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does this not present a scenario that prevents anyone other than a vet from dispensing medicine? Is it not correct that it eliminates anyone other than a vet?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Would it be fair to say that the document received by some of the bodies that gave the Department a legal opinion was a two-liner and that the Attorney General did not agree with it? Why was the full document not given to those people when they were good enough to give the Department a legal opinion?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: In fairness to anybody trying to put forward their case to it, they were good enough to give the Department a legal opinion. Should the Department not be good enough to give them the opposite legal opinion in detail to allow them to study it? Why was this not done?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It is very easy to write a two-liner and say that Michael Fitzmaurice does not agree with something.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have been informed that it is a two-liner. Considering how close the Border is, are our guests concerned that, with the different set-up in different areas, a problem will arise whereby certain farmers will get stuff across the Border whether we like it or not?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: That is okay. Let us consider a farmer with a herd of five, ten or 15 suckler cows in the west or in any other part of Ireland. A farmer with 50 or 60 sheep will be affected more. Say a vet comes to do a herd test for me once a year and I tell the vet that I give them a fluke dose either before or after they go out in June or July and another two weeks after they have come back in. On the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: He is entitled to give the prescription, not the product.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What is the vet legally entitled to do?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulation on Veterinary Medicinal Products (Resumed): Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (6 Oct 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will be quite honest, I have concerns about what the Department is doing. We are leaving a body of people who are extremely experienced with the system that is in place. The Department missed a beat in 2014 and 2015 when, as I understand it, the Brits wanted Ireland to work with them. We thought it was better to drive on. The regulation now seems to be the problem. I ask the...