Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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794. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason a delay of up to six months has developed for the processing of pesticide control service, PCS, number applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34573/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a very significant upsurge in the volume of applications to my Department for registration and approval of new biocide products including also amendments to existing product registrations. Since the arrival of the pandemic, our Pesticide Registration and Control Division (PRCD) in the Department has received approximately 900 new registration applications for biocidal products across a range of different product types which is approximately double normal application levels. There are in excess of 3,700 biocidal products currently registered across 21 different product types.

The extent of the increase in the number of registration applications for biocidal products in 2020 has meant that processing times have been running longer than usual.

My Department has taken a number of steps to try to reduce the length of time taken to process these applications. These include the allocation of additional staff resources to the area, the prioritising of hand sanitiser and disinfectant product types due to the public health need and the streamlining of the application process.

It is imperative that all regulatory requirements continue to be met before granting approval for placing products on the market. It is anticipated that these additional resources will lead to a significant reduction in the processing time in the near future.