Written answers

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

Department of Agriculture and Food

Veterinary Services

7:00 pm

Photo of Emmet StaggEmmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 33: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the measures he is taking to reduce the cost of veterinary medicines which are considerably more expensive here than in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45189/10]

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not have any statutory function in relation to the pricing of veterinary medicines. However, my Department does have statutory responsibility for the regulation of veterinary medicines from the point of view of public health and animal health and welfare. In exercising these functions, my Department is conscious of the need to minimise costs for farmers and pet animal owners and has, within the limits afforded by EU legislation, adopted a number of measures over the years with a view to stimulating competition in the supply of medicines.

Measures adopted by my Department aimed at empowering farmers and other animal owners to get the best value when purchasing medicine supplies include:

A requirement for all outlets to display price lists and, in the case of vets, to show on invoices the cost of the medicine separate from the cost of the professional service;

A requirement on vets to issue written prescriptions, enabling farmers to shop around and purchase from the best value outlet;

An extension of the range of outlets from which many prescription only medicines can be purchased to include Licensed Merchants, in addition to pharmacies and veterinary practices;

An extension of the maximum validity of a prescription to 12 months, thereby enabling farmers stagger their purchases to meet their immediate and seasonal needs.

In addition to the foregoing, the policy my Department is a to retain a viable 'off-prescription' category for medicines which, on scientific evaluation, do not need to be prescribed by a veterinary practitioner. I might add that, during the last review of the EU medicines regime, Ireland strongly opposed Commission proposals to reserve all veterinary medicines to the "prescription-only" category. We were largely successful in this regard, with the result that farmers can continue to purchase major categories of medicines, such as wormers and vaccines, from a wide range of authorised outlets, without incurring the cost of a veterinary call-out fee.

I believe these measures provide clear evidence of my Department's commitment to playing its part in minimising costs. I would encourage farmers to take maximum advantage of these measures and I would ask manufacturers and distributors of veterinary medicines to play their parts in driving down costs by offering best value consistent with a reasonable commercial return.

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