Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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2549. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the types of broad spectrum antibiotics sold as veterinary medicinal products sold in Ireland; the volume of doses of each type sold in each of the years 2007 to 2020 and to date in 2021, by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20275/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine does not systematically collect the volume of sales figures as requested by the Deputy. However, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) has such details on its website at the following link etc. report-on-sales-of-veterinary-antibiotics-in-ireland-during-2019.pdf (hpra.ie).

The HPRA collates data on antibiotic sales for the previous year provided to it by the marketing authorisation holders (MAHs) that market veterinary antibiotics. The most recent HPRA report relates to sales of veterinary antibiotics in Ireland in 2019. The sales figures for 2020 will not be available until Q4 2021 due to a lag period between sales occurring and reporting of sales data to the HPRA from MAHs. Likewise sales figures for 2021 will not be available until Q4 2022. Currently no data is available on sales of antibiotics broken down by type or by county. Sales are reported at a national level in terms of overall tonnage of active ingredient and by route of administration.

My Department is working to develop a National Secure Veterinary Prescription System which will provide more granular sector specific data to identify where the antibiotics are being prescribed in line with requirements of Regulation EU 2019/6.