Vet Med Discussions Have to Include Farmers
IFA Animal Health chair TJ Maher has expressed his concern over the lack of communication between farmers, the Department of Agriculture, vets and licensed merchants on the Draft SI for the Veterinary Medicinal Products Regulation that has taken place over the past few weeks. Farmers received no communication on this matter and have been left out of the conversation since they were updated last January.
Mr Maher said that the Department of Agriculture should be mindful that farmers are the ones who will be purchasing these products and that they will be directly impacted by the contents of the final SI.
“It is ironic that the two service providers – vets and Licensed Merchants – who are seeking to maximise their control on the supply of these veterinary medicinal products are the stakeholders the Department of Agriculture have chosen to engage with on this issue rather than the people who actually buy the products and whose money these service providers are pursuing.”
He also referred to the meeting of the Department of Agriculture and the IFA on this matter in January when they rejected it for several reasons.
“When finalised, it’s vital that the SI maximises competition in the supply and sale of veterinary medicinal products. This means ensuring all current suppliers remain actively involved in the process. The key factors that influence this are the prescribing process and validity period of the prescription,” he said.
Among the primary issues found by the IFA in January was the fact that the SI Draft required all vets to develop a parasite control plan regardless of the amount of existing knowledge they had of the farm in question. The IFA also flagged the issue of allowing Licensed Merchants to hire the services of a consulting vet to prescribe to farmers. Larger licensed merchants would have the ability to do this however smaller merchants wouldn’t meaning they would be frozen out.
TJ Maher highlighted fundamental issues still in need of attention including NVPS which the SI seeks to put on legislative footing. The area of data privacy for farmers in the NVPS relating to the compulsory imposition of NVPS and the failure to recognise the challenges this will pose for the farming community.
To conclude the Animal Health chair outlined the time it has taken to reach this stage of talks and the amount of time it will take on top of this to find the resolution to meet the needs of farmers.
