Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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360. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will expedite an application for a PCS number (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35813/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Biocidal products may only be marketed and used in Ireland once they are registered with my Department and are entered on the “Product Register” in accordance with Regulation 20 of Statutory Instrument 427 of 2013.

The process for registering biocidal products aims to ensure that the making available on the Irish market of such products does not result in harmful effects on human or animal health or unacceptable effects on the environment. Each individual trade name must be registered as a separate biocidal product and will have its own unique PCS registration number or IE/BPA registration number.

I can confirm that the application in question has been placed in the biocidal products application system for processing and officials from the Pesticide Registration and Control Division will contact the applicant in due course. All applications are processed in chronological order. Since March of this year, my Department has received approximately 900 new product applications, of which the vast majority are for hand sanitising and disinfectant products.

You will appreciate, therefore, that processing times for these applications are running longer than usual. In order to expedite the processing of outstanding applications, additional staff resources have been allocated to this area of activity.