The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine will begin pre-legislative scrutiny of the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Bill 2022 today (Wednesday, September 28).
Pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the bill will begin at 5.30p.m in Committee Room 3 of Leinster House, and can be viewed live on Oireachtas TV.
The Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feeds and Fertilisers Regulation Bill 2022 provides for a National Veterinary Prescription System (NVPS) and a National Fertiliser Database, among other objectives.
Representatives from the Irish Co-Operative Organisation Society (ICOS) will join the Oireachtas committee for the first session which is scheduled until 7:00p.m.
The second section of the committee meeting, which is set to run from 7:00p.m until 8:30p.m, will hear from representatives of Teagasc.
Bill 2022
Once enacted, the bill will enable the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, to capture and process information on the import, sale and use of fertiliser in Ireland.
Data related to fertiliser and lime would be collected from the point of import into Ireland until sale to the end user, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
The bill also provides for a national database which will facilitate the recording of veterinary prescriptions by vets, and the dispensing of the medicinal products and medicated feed by a registered dispensing outlet.
The making of regulations on the online sale of veterinary medicinal products, and on the possession, administration and storage of veterinary medicinal products and medicated feed, will also be scrutinised by the committee.
The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine is chaired by Deputy Jackie Cahill, and has 14 members including nine from the Dáil and five from the Seanad.