◎ OireachtasDB

Dail Éireann · 2023-07-05

Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Bill 2023: From the Seanad

FF Charlie McConalogue · Donegal · Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Party shown is the one held on 2023-07-05, frozen at parse time — not the speaker's party today.

Summary of this debate

Auto-generated

Amendment No. 2 is necessary to alter the definition of "companion animals" to set out that the animals concerned are to be kept for domestic purposes only. By way of an example, this is to ensure that when this Bill applies to companion animals, we are not putting dogs used in racing in breeding, or animals kept in a zoo, into that same category.

Amendment No. 3 is necessary to allow the Minister to make regulations in respect of a specific category of animals, such as companion animals, as well as animals generally. Amendment No. 10 is necessary to provide additional clarity for people not familiar with legislation on veterinary medicine, such as users of companion animal medicines.

Built by scoring every sentence in the debate on how distinctive its language is, then quoting the highest-scoring ones back word for word and in the order spoken. Nothing is paraphrased or invented — if a sentence appears here, it was said in the chamber. Drawn from 507 words across 10 contributions by 2 speakers.

Most used terms in this debate

How often each word appears across the whole debate, ranked by how distinctive it is to this debate rather than common to all parliamentary language.

companion 7
animals 9
amendment 13
veterinary 5
animal 5
necessary 10
amendments 7
medicinal 3
products 5
prescription 3
subsection 3
nos 3

The full debate

All 10 contributions, start to finish, in the order they were made. The one you came here for is highlighted.

CC Seán Ó Fearghaíl

I welcome the Minister, Deputy McConalogue.

CC Seán Ó Fearghaíl

Amendments Nos. 2 to 4, inclusive, 6 and 8 to 15, inclusive, are related and will be discussed together. Will the Minister address this cluster of amendments please?

FF Charlie McConalogue

These amendments have come back from the Seanad following further engagement on the Bill.

Amendment No. 2 is necessary to alter the definition of "companion animals" to set out that the animals concerned are to be kept for domestic purposes only. By way of an example, this is to ensure that when this Bill applies to companion animals, we are not putting dogs used in racing in breeding, or animals kept in a zoo, into that same category.

Amendment No. 3 is necessary to allow the Minister to make regulations in respect of a specific category of animals, such as companion animals, as well as animals generally.

The purpose of amendment No. 4 is to add clarity to this subsection.

Amendment No. 6 is necessary to clarify that this subsection refers to a pharmacist operating from a retail pharmacy business.

Amendments Nos. 8 and 9 are necessary to align and dovetail subsections 5(b) and 6(c) regarding registration on the databases, as they are ambiguous as they presently stand. These amendments will bring clarity to the wording of the subsection.

Amendment No. 10 is necessary to provide additional clarity for people not familiar with legislation on veterinary medicine, such as users of companion animal medicines.

Amendment No. 11 is necessary to clarify that the products that may be permitted under Article 110, use of immunological veterinary medicinal products, or Article 116, use of veterinary medicinal products not authorised in a member state, and the marketing of such products, is authorised in another member state when animal or public health concerns so require derogation.

Amendment No. 12 relates to a grammatical issue and amendment No. 13 is a technical amendment.

Amendment No. 14 is necessary to set out the sections under which a fixed payment notice may issue.

Amendment No. 15 is necessary to remove unnecessary wording without changing the function of the title.

CC Seán Ó Fearghaíl

I take it that the companion animals are human companion animals and not companions of each other.

FF Charlie McConalogue this contribution

I think so.

CC Seán Ó Fearghaíl

Right. Good.

CC Seán Ó Fearghaíl

Amendments Nos. 5 and 7 are related and will be discussed together.

FF Charlie McConalogue

Amendment No. 5 is necessary to allow me to make regulations for dispensing of veterinary medicinal products in a research environment. Amendment No. 7 is necessary as the matter is deemed substantive. This provision continues the current practice of allowing a veterinarian not to provide a veterinary prescription for a companion animal if the owner of the animal agrees. The owner of such an animal may, of course, request a prescription and a prescription must be issued in such circumstances.

CC Seán Ó Fearghaíl

That is a great lot of agreement. I thank all the Members very much.

CC Seán Ó Fearghaíl

Agreement to the Seanad amendments is reported to the House and a message will be sent to Seanad Éireann acquainting it accordingly.

It was a pleasure doing business with the Minister and Deputies.