Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I thank him for bringing forward this Bill. It is great to see how his Department is embracing the digital side of things. It would be great to see that across a number of other Departments.

Antimicrobial resistance is a crucial issue. We see the regulations pharmacists and chemists have to look at in order to try to manage antimicrobial resistance, especially in hospitals and other health settings. This is looking at our food chain. If he has time, the Minister might comment on how he sees the NVPS working in the first year and how he would evaluate it after a year or so. It is great is free and that it will be available over the phone as well as with a laptop and so on. How do we ensure all vets are going to be able to use this system? In doing this we are trying to ensure that best practice is rolled out across the country. When it come to best practice, there is probably a role for Teagasc in rolling this out and working with farmers. Has the Minister any ideas on how that might work when the Bill is enacted?

We are talking about improving animal health, preventing disease and so on. This will be important for farmers and for us in the long term because we hope ti will open up more international markets for us. The health side of what we are doing here will combine with our reputation for grass-fed beef. What about the costs of this? Have we carried out any research into potential costs for farmers on the prescription side as a result of this? How can we support them in terms of access to all types of antibiotics? There is probably access to a lot of generics and so on, but is the Department examining ways to ensure that the costs relating to farmers are monitored and managed?

The other aspect is the fertiliser database, which the Minister mentioned. This is important. We hope to see more competition in the context of costs.They will not be as bad as they were previously. There will be a roll-out to farmers of the fertiliser database. Will those be integrated or two separate systems?