Sean Barrett (Independent)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 4, between lines 43 and 44, to insert the following:

"(f) whether the procedure related to disease eradication can be accomplished by a non-registered person;

(g) that a procedure that can be performed by a non-registered person with the appropriate skills, training and experience that these procedures be performed by a non-registered person. Procedures that should be performed by a non-registered person are inclusive of but not limited to those enumerated below. The enumerated procedures are as follows:

(i) farriery,

(ii) equine dentistry,

(iii) bovine hoof trimming,

(iv) micro-chipping of companion animals,

(v) scanning of cattle,

(vi) scanning of sheep,

(vii) physiotherapy,

(viii) TB inoculation.

I welcome the Minister to the House. We had a good debate on this Bill on Second Stage and I have now tabled amendments for Committee Stage. On the last occasion we debated this legislation, the House was united with the Minister on the need to reform the profession, as they all have to be reformed according to the IMF-EU-ECB agreement. We have had wide-ranging problems with the sheltered sector professions.

I supported the Minister on the changes needed. The context was having a quality assurance regime in place to assist the development of the food industry to the degree everybody in the House supported as a major part of growing the economy. As the explanatory memorandum states, we had inadvertently precipitated a shortage of qualified veterinarians. A Competition Authority report indicated that 40% of new vets were from outside the State. That made me question having a restriction on the numbers studying veterinary medicine which requires up to 550 leaving certificate points and giving a monopoly to one institution. We need this expansion to facilitate a development goal that is of great importance to everybody.

The Minister has said he wishes to extend the range of activities traditionally carried out in respect of animals by farmers and other persons with appropriate skills which had been inadvertently reserved for veterinary practitioners or nurses. I assume some of the restrictive practices engaged in by professions had also been advertently provided for in legislation. We recognise the importance of competitiveness to the economy, particularly to the export-led sectors. We were pleased to see indications last week that that policy was starting to work, given that 10,000 more people were at work, albeit having lost almost 300,000 jobs after the collapse of the banking system and bringing in of the IMF. In that spirit, my amendment seeks to insert subsections based expressly on the Minister's comments on Second Stage about the procedures he wished to remove which, as the explanatory memorandum states, were inadvertently reserved for the veterinary profession. The items listed in my amendment are taken from the Minister's Second Stage speech during which he said:

The procedures in question include farriery, equine dentistry, bovine hoof trimming, micro-chipping of companion animals, scanning of cattle and sheep and physiotherapy ... The legal advice obtained by my Department indicated that in the event of legal disputes arising, there could be doubt about the status of such procedures carried out on animals ... My Department has received advice from the Office of the Attorney General to the effect that this cannot be done in a comprehensive manner without amending the Veterinary Practice Act 2005. Under the amendments I am proposing, my office will be vested with a delegated power to make ministerial regulations, exempting specified procedures from being reserved to registered people.

My amendment is proposed in that spirit. I do not know whether the Government asterisk should be placed beside some of the items the Minister mentioned. I invite him to so do should he so wish to do so.

The final item I included in the list was TB inoculation having spoken to some people involved in the meat business. Obviously, the Minister is the expert . However, I understand that for TB eradication the animal receives an injection in the neck and 24 hours later it is checked to see whether it is a reactor. The people to whom I have spoken believe this should be carried out by a technician.

I have explained the origins of and motivation for my amendment which are the same as those of the Minister.