Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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1557. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he is taking to ensure a competitive market for the supply of antiparasitic veterinary medicines in view of the fact that they no longer meet exemption criteria in EU law which permits them to be supplied without a veterinary prescription; the reason his Department did not seek to secure a derogation to Regulation 2019/6 prior to it coming into force in January 2019 to allow persons other than veterinarians to issue prescriptions;; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42156/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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All current suppliers of antiparasitic veterinary medicines will continue to be legally permitted to supply these medicines post January 2022. My Department is actively working with all stakeholders through the Antiparasitic Resistance Stakeholder Group to sustain a competitive market for the supply of these products. The ambition is to ensure Irish farmers are empowered to purchase medicines from their supplier of choice. Initiatives such as the development of a National Veterinary Prescribing System (NVPS) will help deliver on this ambition. The NVPS will result in a prescription being made available to a farmer by choice of email, text or in paper. Farmers can then engage with Licensed Merchants, veterinary pharmacists or their veterinary practitioner in getting their prescription dispensed. 

Negotiations on Regulation 2019/6 were finalised in early 2019. At that time, antiparasitic veterinary medicines could be supplied in Ireland without the requirement for a veterinary prescription. Therefore, in the course of negotiations on the Regulation, there was no rationale for Ireland to seek a  derogation permitting persons other than veterinary practitioners to issue veterinary prescriptions for these medicines. Following the coming into force of Regulation 2019/6 in January 2019, a Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) Expert Task Force undertook a review of antiparasitic veterinary medicines which confirmed that they no longer met the exemption criteria in EU law which permitted them to be supplied without a veterinary prescription. These conclusions were issued in a report in December 2019 and is available here .

As a result, under EU law antiparasitic veterinary medicinal products must be upregulated to Prescription Only Medicine (POM) in Ireland from January 2022.