Yesterday evening (Monday, June 28), the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine released its report on upcoming changes to veterinary medicine regulations.
The report comes after the committee held several meetings with stakeholders on veterinary medicine regulations.
An EU regulation will see certain medicines – including common antiparasitics – require a prescription from a vet from January 2022 before they can be acquired by farmers.
This upcoming change has left licenced merchants and co-ops concerned over what their role would be in the new regulatory environment.
In the hope of addressing these concerns and any others between now and the end of the year, the Oireachtas Committee has outlined 10 recommendations and observations.
Oireachtas committee recommendations
The first of these recommendations is directed at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, calling on it to ensure the continuation of the existing network – including licensed merchants and veterinary pharmacists – as a recognised route of supply of antiparasitic medicines.
The second observation made by the committee recognises the importance of licensed merchants and veterinary pharmacists in providing rural communities and the faming sector with a high-standard of service – particularly by ensuring competition for veterinary medicines – and a source of employment.
The committee also recommends that the department not delay in its request on legal advice on the EU regulation and for this advice to be shared with stakeholders.
Particularly, the department is asked to explore a possible mechanism that would allow ‘responsible persons’ in licenced merchants or pharmacists play a role in prescribing and dispensing medicines.
The fourth recommendation/observation in the committee’s report is the number and locations of vets around the country who are involved in livestock veterinary practices.
“Farmers need to have the right of prompt access to prescriptions. With the introduction of this regulation there could be an issue of receiving prescriptions in a timely manner as the demand of access to veterinary surgeons will increase,” the report notes.
On a separate but somewhat related issue, the committee requests the department to examine the issue of corporate bodies purchasing veterinary practices to ensure “fairness in competition and that farmers have the same access to veterinary services across the county”.
The sixth recommendation/observation is for vets to refrain from listing their preferred brands of medicine on prescriptions which, it is hoped, would allow farmers the choice of purchasing a generic version of the medication at lower cost, and with a licenced merchant if they prefer.
“The committee is concerned that ‘one-stop shops’ at veterinary practices may be anti-competitive and unfair to clients,” the committee warns.
It then went on to observe the difference between antimicrobial resistance (resistance to antibiotics) and resistance to antiparasitics; namely that the former can effect humans through the consumption of animal products, whereas the latter would not.
For that reason, the committee calls for different strategies and approaches for the two issues.
The next recommendation is for the department to actively consider breaking the link between prescribing and dispensing, i.e. that the party that prescribes the medicine would not then provide it.
This, the committee says, has been “a proven success” in other EU countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Italy; and should be pursued in the absence of any other legal solution.
The final two recommendations are similar: The committee recognises the roles of veterinary practitioners, pharmacists and licenced merchants in providing advice and animal health products to farmers; and that the livelihoods of responsible persons would be put in jeopardy if the government did not facilitate their continued role in the prescribing of vet medicines.