Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, has said that the risks of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) poses “significant challenges to society and to the Irish farming sector”.
At a Joint Oireachtas committee meeting on Tuesday (October 11) Minister Heydon addressed the committee on the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Bill.
Minister Heydon said:
“Responsible use of antimicrobial products in food producing animals is a key element in helping to combat resistance.
“This is an important piece of legislation for farmers and for the wider agricultural industry.
“From the outset I want to stress the priority for this department has been to strike a balance between ensuring continued availability of these products at a reasonable price for farmers to fight AMR, meeting regulatory requirements, and protecting the rural economy.”
Heydon stated that one of the main elements in the bill is the provision of a statutory basis for the introduction of the National Veterinary Prescription System (NVPS).
This will facilitate the electronic generation and dispensing of prescriptions of veterinary medicines for food producing animals.
“The introduction of this electronic system will also provide greater choice for farmers when getting prescriptions dispensed,” Heydon added.
“This has been a central consideration of my department in drafting this legislation.
“The bill will make it mandatory for all veterinary prescriptions to be generated electronically using the NVPS.
“The system, in this current phase of development, will facilitate the recording of veterinary prescriptions by a registered veterinarians across eight food producing animal species.
“It also caters for the dispensing of any such prescription, where appropriate, from a registered dispensing outlet such as a licensed merchant, co-op or pharmacist outlet.”
Fertiliser database
Minister Heydon also explained that the bill when enacted, will enable the collection and processing of information on the import, manufacture, sale, supply and use of fertiliser in the state.
“It will six enable data related to fertilisers and lime to be collected from the point of import into the country or manufacture to sale to end use,” he said.
“Under the proposed legislation, if a farmer or other professional fertiliser end user, for example a greenkeeper wants to purchase fertiliser or lime, he or she must register as a professional fertiliser end user.”
Farmers or agents acting on their behalf will be able to register using the department’s online portal.
Non-professional users of fertiliser will not be impacted by this legislative proposal.
Professional fertiliser end users will have to submit opening and closing stocks of fertiliser on their farms or premises on dates to be agreed as part of the consultation process portal.