1 Feb 2024
The BVA has described the move as “an important step”, despite pressure from unionist politicians for even more dramatic steps.
Allister Webb
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Plans to set up a working group to explore options for securing the continuing supply of veterinary medicines to Northern Ireland have been welcomed by the BVA.
The move was outlined in a new Safeguarding the Union document published yesterday (31 January), following an agreement between the Government and key unionist politicians.
But one of them has suggested UK ministers should act anyway if a final solution is not concluded by the spring.
Although current supply rules are due to remain in place until the end of next year, pressure has been growing from veterinary and industry groups for a permanent solution well before then.
The document said the new group would “advise the Government on the flexibilities that are needed by farmers, industry and animal owners”.
It went on: “The group will be composed of elected representatives, farming and industry representatives as well as legal and trade experts. We will appoint the working group rapidly and ask it to report its findings urgently.”
In a statement following the paper’s publication, BVA Northern Ireland branch president Esther Skelly-Smith welcomed what she described as a commitment to “finding practical, long-term solutions”.
She said: “The new Veterinary Medicines Working Group is an important step towards safeguarding supply, which if left unaddressed, will have serious and far-reaching consequences for the veterinary profession, the farming and equine sectors, as well as public health.
“It is only by a willingness to look carefully and creatively for possible solutions that the ongoing protection of Northern Ireland’s animal and public health and vital agricultural industry will be ensured.”
The issue of medicine supply is thought to have been a key priority of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which signalled its willingness to return to the power-sharing executive at Stormont earlier this week, nearly two years after the institution collapsed.
But, in response to a parliamentary statement on the issue, one of the DUP’s MPs, Ian Paisley, asked whether unilateral action could be taken to solve it “if a speedy solution is not brought forward by the spring”.
Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris did not rule out the idea, saying he would listen to the group’s recommendations while expressing the hope that “technical solutions” could be achieved through talks with the EU.
However, the paper does include a commitment to outlining plans for new legislation in the spring that would “avoid new regulatory divergence between GB and NI on veterinary medicines”.
