Ms Doyle, MEP:

I will do my best to reply but I will not be able to deal with all the issues raised. Issues concerning the annual veterinary certificate and co-operatives were raised. What was decided at COREPER yesterday – it has another meeting today – will be voted on next week in the plenary session in Strasbourg. Effectively, this means British and Irish domestic law in this area will be changed. The best guess as to what we will do will be something similar to what is done in France, where an annual script or a six-months script for veterinary medicines is given to farmers for a range of medicines that are now non-prescription, such as teat dips, iodine, parasiticides, anthelmintics and so on. Antibiotics and steroids will continue to be issued on the basis of clinical diagnosis per prescription because of the risk to the food chain. General animal husbandry farm medicines would have to be issued on an annual or six month script. Members need to speak with the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Walsh, about this to ascertain how he will accommodate Ireland to stay within the terms of this veterinary medicines directive. We have a few years to sort ourselves out. There is a gap between the time a directive is passed in Europe and transposed into Irish law. It is only today that the Department of Agriculture and Food is wondering how it will accommodate the Irish farmer, the co-operative, the pharmacist, the veterinary practitioner and, above all, protect the food chain in what is being demanded to square that circle.

Ms Doyle, MEP:

What we sought posed no risk to the food chain. Residue tests, while they do not reveal high levels of residue, show that the highest level of residue comes from antibiotics which are already on prescription. To put everything on prescription will not guarantee any greater safety to the food chain. The period between administering the drug and slaughter and observing the correct withdrawal period, or MRL, is what safeguards the food. Whether one has a prescription will not guarantee that the farmer will be any better in obeying the withdrawal period. Generally farmers are excellent in this area and most drugs are out of the blood stream in three to four weeks so it is not an issue. The argument will be made that this is a food chain issue and that we had to do this. It has nothing to do with the food chain. It is not a harmonisation or a Single Market issue, which is the other argument that will be made, because there is no definition of a "veterinary medicine" or a "veterinary prescription" in the directive. A veterinary prescription is treated differently in every country in Europe as is veterinary medicine.