Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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1057. To ask the Minister for Health if he will confirm that funding amount provided towards the development of non-animal alternative bioscience research methods, knowns as the 3 Rs, replacement, reduction and refinement - in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 and if he could confirm the proportion allocated to each method [28096/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy may wish to note that all project applications in the period referred to in the Deputy's question, that is, 2010 to 2012, involving the use of animals required the application of replacement, reduction and refinement considerations. It would not have been possible for research projects to be licensed by my Department in the absence of such considerations. However, there was no dedicated budget line provided by Government for this purpose.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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1058. To ask the Minister for Health if he will confirm that amount of funding allocated to the development and validation of alternative bioscience research method approaches in 2013 with reference to Article 47 (1) of the EU Directive 2010/63/EU [28097/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I would wish to draw to the attention of the Deputy that what is proposed under Article 47 (1) is that the Commission and the Member States shall contribute to the development and validation of alternative approaches which could provide the same or higher levels of information as those obtained in procedures using animals, but which do not involve the use of animals or use fewer animals or which entail less painful procedures, and they shall take such other steps as they consider appropriate to encourage research in this field. ~~

A specific amount of funding is not required to be allocated for this purpose in 2013. The recently appointed Competent Authority for the purpose of Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals for scientific purposes, the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) is currently working with the European Commission regarding the identification and validation on alternative approaches that might be developed in the future.