Weeks left to avert NI protocol ‘catastrophe’, animal health industry group warns

An animal health industry body says there are only a few weeks left to avert a welfare “catastrophe” over the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP).

NOAH has added its voice to calls for “meaningful” discussions on the issue, warning that neither the protocol, nor UK Government plans to change it, will solve the problem.

Concern has been growing for months that up to half of the veterinary medicines that are currently available in Northern Ireland will no longer be if present arrangements are allowed to lapse at the end of the year.

Negotiations

Although negotiations between the UK Government and EU have resumed in the past few weeks, politicians on both sides have given conflicting signals about their progress.

NOAH chief executive Dawn Howard said member companies were “extremely concerned” about the protocol’s implications for their work and could see little evidence of the deadlock being addressed.

She said: “The full protocol in its current format will lead to NI-specific requirements, from both a supply chain and regulatory perspective, that animal health companies are simply not able to meet.

“Many products – up to half – are at great risk of being discontinued for the NI market. NI vets and farmers will no longer have the tools they need to protect the animals in their care.”

‘Impossible position’

Mrs Howard added: “The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill is not the answer. Unilateral action taken by the UK will leave our industry, with its global supply chain and rigorous regulatory standards, in an impossible position.

“We need the UK Government and European Commission to engage in meaningful, constructive discussions about this matter, and develop a long-term solution to these problems to ensure long-term availability and supply of veterinary medicines to the NI market.

“We are encouraged by a reopening of dialogue about the NIP, but we need a swift solution for our sector’s problems to avert this potential animal welfare catastrophe.”

The comments echo similar pleas for action by the BVA president Malcolm Morley, and senior figures from the North of Ireland Veterinary Association and the Ulster Farmers’ Union in recent months.

But the AHDA has indicated support for the UK Government’s plans to override the protocol, claiming it would prevent disruption to supplies.