The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine will meet to resume its debate on the EU regulation on veterinary medicines.

The committee will also get a briefing from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The Veterinary Medicines Regulation (Regulation [EU] 2019/6) legislates for the authorisation, use and monitoring of veterinary medicinal products in the EU.

It came into effect on January 28, 2019, and applies in all member states on January 28, 2022.

The regulation follows the adoption of a proposal in 2014 to develop “fit-for-purpose” veterinary legislation which would no longer be based on the equivalent human medicines authorisation system.

Challenges facing stakeholders

Committee chair, Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill, explained: “The committee, because of the significance of this change, prioritised debate on the regulation and held a series of meetings to examine the challenges facing stakeholders and the agriculture sector.

“The committee recognised the role of veterinary practitioners, veterinary pharmacists and licensed merchants in the provision of advice and animal healthcare products but, in our report, in which we put forward ten recommendations, observations and conclusions, we also discussed issues regarding ‘responsible persons’, possible anti-competitive practices and costs to farmers.”

Deputy Cahill added that while the committee welcomes the “sentiment of the regulations and what it’s try to do”, the members had hoped that the Minister for Agriculture would “consider our report and take on board our key findings and recommendations in the implementation process of the regulations”.

“The committee looks forward to the briefing with the department on their next steps,” the deputy added.

The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine has 14 members, nine from the Dáil and five from the Seanad.

The meeting an be viewed in Committee Room 3 on the Oireachtas website at 5:30p.m today (Wednesday, October 6).