A proposed law forcing farmers to get a veterinary prescription to buy antiparasitic drugs, including for fluke and worm doses, “will leave the floodgates open” to cross-border trade, animal health suppliers have warned.
he Irish Co-Operative Organisation Society, Independent Licensed Merchants Association and Irish Pharmacy Union have heaped pressure on the Department of Agriculture to row back on plans to exclude pharmacists and trained “responsible persons” as prescribers of antiparasitic medicines in stores nationwide from December 1 this year.
Addressing the Joint Oireachtas Agriculture Committee on the implementation of the new EU Veterinary Medicines Regulation, stakeholders said failure to align the Republic’s prescribing/dispensing regime with that of Northern Ireland — where pharmacists, vets, and “suitably qualified persons” (the UK’s equivalent to “responsible persons”) all prescribe antiparasitics — will result in “the development of an unnecessary and damaging black market for veterinary medicines”.
They argued that excluding professionals other than vets from issuing prescriptions will lead to less competition in the sector, increased administrative burden, increased costs for farmers, reduced availability of products, adverse impacts on animal welfare, diminished food quality assurance, and loss of jobs, businesses and services in rural areas.
ILMA’s Barry Larkin said: “Agri retailers have many concerns around this bill, however, it’s the availability of goods from Northern Ireland that most puts aspects of this bill in question.
“An all-Ireland approach would be better, or at least to have the same processes in place on both sides of the border. Currently, a farmer can go into Northern Ireland, purchase whatever antiparasitic product they want over the counter and bring it back across the border — they may be in breach of their Bord Bia schemes by using that product, but if they don’t record the use, there’s no problem. If the bill is introduced in its current form, that will increase any amount.”
ILMA’s Ollie Ryan added: “They [the Department] will be leaving the floodgates open because the interpretation is different over the border.
“Any merchant in the border area would be totally wiped out and that will trickle down the country because if it’s easily accessed in the North, that’s where you’ll go for it.”
