Latest Laois News: Local TD asks is Department of Agriculture determined to put Licensed Merchants out of business

Local TD claims Dept. of Agriculture’s proposed new regulatory system will take away ability of Responsible Persons (RP’s) to prescribe and sell anti-parasitic veterinary medicines after January 2022.

“Department appears determined to push the licensed merchant sector over a cliff,” Carol Nolan

Independent TD for Laois/Offaly Carol Nolan has said that Licenced Merchants are stunned by the apparent determination of the Department of Agriculture and the Minister for Agriculture to pursue a new regulatory regime that would completely erode the capacity of Responsible Persons (RP’s) to prescribe and sell anti-parasitic veterinary medicines after January 2022.

Deputy Nolan was speaking as frustration and alarm continues to mount within the sector following confirmation from the Department of Agriculture’s Chief Veterinary Officer that from January 2022 prescribing of such medicines will be strictly limited to vets:

“It is difficult to overstate the level of concern that now exists within the agri-merchant sector following the decision of the department to pursue this totally inflexible regulatory approach.

It also makes a complete mockery of the extensive Oireachtas Agriculture Committee investigation of this matter and the excellent and balanced Report that it subsequently issued.

Are we seriously expected to believe that this Report, which explicitly called for the continuation of the existing network, which includes Licensed Merchants and Veterinary Pharmacists as a recognised route of supply of antiparasitic medicines, was somehow reckless in its recommendations or deficient in its insight?

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Department has simply set aside the solutions on offer in order to pursue and implement a decision that it had already arrived at prior to beginning of the entire consultation process.

When I raised this matter with the Taoiseach last year he stated that he did not want to see a cliff edge scenario where employment was jeopardised and the rural economy threatened.

Yet here we are-precisely in that scenario with the blessing of his own government’s department.

Licensed Merchants need a workable and viable solution that respects their professionalism and history of safeguarding animal and human welfare.

What’s on offer now is nowhere near that,” concluded Deputy Nolan.