John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 209: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if she will confirm that none of the botox being safety tested on mice here with LD50 or other testing procedures will be used for anti-wrinkle treatments in this country or elsewhere. [10240/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, as amended by the European Communities (Amendment of Cruelty to Animals Act 1876) Regulations 2002, provides the legislative framework for control of the use of live animals in scientific research and other experimental activity. Under the Act the Minister for Health and Children is designated as the "Authority" and has responsibility for granting licences to perform specified experiments on an animal of specified description in accordance with the restrictions imposed by the Act.

The Act, as amended, provides that an experiment shall not be performed except for one of the following purposes: the development, manufacture, quality, effectiveness and safety testing of drugs, foodstuffs and other substances or products for the avoidance, prevention, diagnosis or treatment of disease, ill-health or other abnormality or their effects in human beings, animals or plants, or the assessment, detection, regulation, or modification of physiological conditions in human beings, animals or plants; the protection of the natural environment in the interests of the health or welfare of human beings or animals or the illustration of lectures in medical schools, hospitals, colleges or elsewhere.

The Irish Medicines Board, IMB, has advised that botox is authorised as a prescription only medicine and is indicated for the management of a number of specified conditions. The IMB has also advised that the product information specifies "botox should only be given by physicians with appropriate qualifications, and documented expertise in the treatment and the use of the required equipment". The Deputy may wish to note that it is the practice in Ireland not to licence experiments for the testing of cosmetic products.