The Irish Licensed Merchants Association (ILMA) has sought an urgent meeting with the Minister of Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and his officials over the impasse regarding the sale of veterinary medicines.

Last week it was revealed that the Attorney General opposed draft legislation which would allow ‘Responsible Persons’ such as merchant staff to prescribe certain veterinary medicines including dosing products.

Ollie Ryan of the ILMA said he was “baffled” by how the Attorney General’s opinion was communicated and questioned whether the negotiations on the new veterinary medicines regime was being deliberately compromised.

“The Minister’s whole communication process has let him down once again, where we see information being drip-fed from the Department undermining the whole process,” said Ryan.

Ryan said the Minister appeared to be hell bent on ramming through the legislation without a role for Responsible Persons, with “complete disregard for merchants and thousandsof jobs in rural Ireland”.

“We have sought an urgent meeting with them to try and come to a solution,” he said.

Tighter EU regulations around the use of animal medicines mean that farmers will require prescriptions from vets to purchase treatments such as drenches and doses.

Commenting on the proposed new rules, Galway-based vet and former Veterinary Ireland president Conor Geraghty warned that antibiotic use would be the biggest change for farmers.

“You will only have five days to move on an antimicrobial prescription, for example dry cow tubes. If it was an antiparasitic, like Ivermectin, you would have up to 12 months to fill it,” he said.

“There will be a change of mindset. There will be more planning needed for parasite control and for people who have been doing things a certain way for years or generations that will be a challenge.”

Geraghty rejected the suggestion that restricting the prescribing of common medicines to vets alone, and not allowing merchant staff to do the same, could lead to a monopoly on the sale of medicines.

“The National Veterinary Prescribing System (NVPS) levels that playing field, in that farmers can still fill those prescriptions where they want.

“We don’t agree with the notion that a farmer will be under pressure to get it from their vet, there is a significant number of vets who don’t retail this sort of stuff.

“The farmer is independent enough to make up their own mind, some will go to their co-ops and some will stay with their vets.”