Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has told TDs that he is “committed to ensuring a competitive marketplace for the supply of all veterinary medicines”.
Minister McConalogue made the pledge as he brought a contentious vet medicines and fertilisers bill back to the Dáil.
He also underlined the “importance of competition in the marketplace” as the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Bill 2023 came before the Dáil for a second time.
The bill, which could pave the way for significant changes to the regulation of veterinary medicine and the registration of fertilisers in Ireland, has not had a smooth journey so far.
Originally, the bill was expected to be in place last December, but it was withdrawn by Minister McConalogue on the advice of the Attorney General.
He told TDs today (Tuesday, February 14) that he hoped “some outstanding shortcomings can be resolved” and that he looked “forward to support for this important legislation that will provide many far-reaching benefits for farmers, public and animal health and welfare and the environment”.
Minister McConalogue was also keen to emphasise in the Dáil that “protecting the choice of the farmer in where he purchases antiparasitic veterinary medicines” was central to the work of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
Primary aim of bill
MInister McConalogue said the primary aim of the bill is “to modernise the area of veterinary medicines and medicated feed” and “also enable the collection and processing of information on the import, manufacture, sale, supply and use of fertiliser in the state”.
He said the bill would also address the issue of antimicrobial resistance, protect the supply of veterinary medicines and medicated feeds and support Irish farmers and businesses.
“The bill will repeal the Animal Remedies Act 1993. It will provide for the introduction of a national veterinary prescription system (NVPS).
“This system, which is being developed by my department, will position Ireland as a leader within the EU in terms of regulatory oversight on the use of veterinary medicinal products in food-producing animals,” Minister McConalogue told TDs.
Antimicrobial resistance
He also said that tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) “is accepted as being critically important to achieving the best public, animal and environmental health outcomes, achieving economic, environmental and socially sustainable development and ensuring food security”.
One of the key criticisms that had been levelled at the minister in relation to the bill from various quarters – including the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine – was in relation to a potential lack of market competition that could develop around the dispensing of veterinary products.
The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) has repeatedly warned that the bill has the potential to create “a dramatic shift” in the veterinary medicines supply chain, in favour of private veterinary practitioners (PVPs) to “the detriment of co-ops and independent licenced merchants”.
Supply routes
But today, Minister McConalogue was keen to stress that he was committed to “a continuation of the current routes of supply into the future” in relation to veterinary medicines.
He said that the bill “provides for persons permitted to dispense a veterinary medicinal product subject to a prescription”.
Minister McConalogue told the Dáil:
“It also provides for the making of regulations in relation to the prescription and dispensing of veterinary medicinal products or medicated feed, including such areas as setting the maximum validity period of a veterinary prescription other than an antimicrobial, specifying the contents of a veterinary prescription, the emergency dispensing of veterinary medicinal products by pharmacists and, as recommended in the pre-legislative scrutiny report, producing a list of antiparasitic veterinary medicinal products that can be dispensed in lieu of the product on the veterinary prescription.”
The minister detailed that the bill will lead to the establishment of a national database” where all veterinary prescriptions and the dispensing of veterinary prescriptions will be recorded.
One other key aspect of the new bill will also lead to the establishment of a national fertiliser database “which will encompass the registration of fertiliser economic operators and end users”.
Fertiliser database
The national fertiliser database will provide for accurate tracking of fertiliser sales along the supply chain, according to the minister.
“The recording of fertiliser sales data at farm level will facilitate traceability and monitoring of quantities and types of fertiliser used over time. Additionally, farmers can use this data to demonstrate compliance with any future voluntary industry sustainability or quality assurance initiatives,” the minister said.
According to Minister McConalogue information for the national database “will also facilitate regulatory controls” by DAFM under Ireland’s Nitrates Action Programme, nitrates derogation and the eco-scheme liming and reduced fertiliser options under THE Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Although he moved to address concerns previously highlighted in relation to the vet medicines and fertilisers bill a number of TDs appeared unconvinced and were adamant that the bill still required amendments.
Border issues
Sinn Féin TD for Cavan-Monaghan, Matt Carthy, who is also the party’s spokesperson on agriculture, said that there “is one obvious problem with the so-called national fertiliser database in that it is not actually national”.
“In the absence of an all-Ireland approach, there are clear concerns as to how measures will be effective, particularly in border communities, with which the minister will be well aware in his own constituency, where it is very possible that a farmer’s nearest merchant is actually just across the road but happens to be in a different county and different jurisdiction,” Deputy Carthy added.
Labour TD for Tipperary Alan Kelly echoed this theme and said “the absence of an all-island” approach to the sale and purchase of veterinary medicines could result in “the emergence of a sort of black market, where people can cross the border and buy a greater range of range of medicines at a lower cost”.
Meanwhile, the chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Fianna Fáil Tipperary TD , Jackie Cahill, also warned that cross-border trade would be an issue.
“It will also be an issue with fertiliser. I am strongly of the view that a 32-county approach is far better for all aspects of food production, no more so than in the sale of veterinary medicines and fertiliser. I hope it is something that we can progress,” Deputy Cahill added.