I am pleased to present to the House, on Second Stage, the Veterinary Practice (Amendment) Bill 2011.
Before giving an outline of the Bill I propose to make some preliminary remarks about the context in which this Bill is being presented and the role played by veterinary practitioners, nurses and others in the treatment and care of animals.
At the outset, it would be appropriate for me to take the opportunity in the House to convey my congratulations to the veterinary profession in this year which marks the 250th anniversary of its establishment in France. The profession can rightly be proud of the role it has played in the development of agricultural systems in Europe and beyond in the interim, particularly in combating animal diseases. While the establishment of formal veterinary education and training in this country came somewhat later, we nonetheless have a track record of more than a century of Irish-trained veterinarians.
The primary role of the profession continues to be animal health care, with the greatest number of veterinarians working in this field, either in caring for farm animals, sport animals and increasingly in the care of companion animals. At farm level, veterinarians perform a very important function in assisting farmer clients to maintain the high health status of their animals and minimising disease risks which can have a significant impact on farm income. Veterinarians are also a critical part of the official inspection service, both at farm and processing levels, in terms of verifying that food is safe for consumers. Veterinarians are also involved in many other roles within industry, including research as part of the pharmaceutical industry, reflecting how the profession has responded to evolving demands and is prepared to participate fully in the broader economic life of the economy. Veterinarians can truly be said to be involved from "farm to fork".
Turning to the broader economic context, this House will be well aware of the ambitious targets which have been set for the agrifood sector under Food Harvest 2020. I am personally committed to driving this strategy forward, which was put in place by a previous Government. As Members are aware, our agriculture and food industries have been identified as key drivers of our overall economic recovery in the years ahead. Producing high quality, safe food at a competitive price will be a central determinant of our success in meeting our ambitious targets. In view of the ongoing and increasing awareness and concern about animal health and welfare and, equally importantly, food safety, the veterinary profession will no doubt play a significant role in the drive to achieve the 2020 vision.
Against this background, I would like to stress the importance the Government attaches to ensuring that while our regulatory procedures are robust, they must not be unduly restrictive or overly burdensome on the industry they are designed to serve, and in particular they should not impact negatively on national competitiveness and economic development. The professions, including the veterinary profession, play an important part in the broader economic life of the country but we must ensure that only those functions or tasks which need to be reserved for highly trained professionals are reserved for them. In particular, it is important that functions currently safely performed by persons other than veterinarians can continue to be performed by these persons, although it may be necessary to put in place additional guarantees in regard to the training and skills of persons performing these functions. This is the philosophy underpinning the main element of the legislation I bring before this House today.
It is worth recalling at this stage that the veterinary profession was the first of the professions in Ireland to have its underpinning legislation significantly reformed and brought up to date. The Veterinary Practice Act 2005 overhauled regulation of the profession in areas such as composition of its regulating body, the Veterinary Council of Ireland, improved disciplinary procedures, establishment of mandatory continuous professional development and premises accreditation schemes.
The 2005 Act also represented an important milestone in the development of the veterinary nursing profession as a discipline in its own right, with the Act conferring formal recognition on nurses for the first time in Ireland. This has enabled the veterinary nursing profession to develop its distinct personality and there are now almost 500 nurses registered to practice. In the field of nurse education and training, we have moved from a situation less than five years ago where most nurses had to go overseas for training to the current situation where five colleges in Ireland now offer approved and accredited courses. All of these positive developments have taken place in the relatively short period since the 2005 Act came into force and I look forward to the veterinary nursing profession developing further in tandem and in co-operation with their veterinary practitioner colleagues in the years ahead.
Turning to the Veterinary Practice (Amendment) Bill 2011, it may be useful to state at this stage that the measure can be divided into two broad strands. The first strand, which is covered in section 2, concerns mechanisms for exempting certain functions and activities from being reserved to veterinary practitioners or veterinary nurses — when I refer to practitioners and nurses together elsewhere in my remarks I shall, for convenience, refer to them jointly as registered persons. The second strand, in other words, sections 3 to 9, inclusive, relates in summary to changes being proposed to streamline and improve operation of the legislation in light of experience since its implementation in January 2006. In the majority of cases, the changes proposed derive from suggestions put forward by the Veterinary Council of Ireland based on its direct experience of implementing the 2005 Act. The proposed amendments also take account of more recent legislation governing regulation of the professions, in particular, the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 and the Pharmacy Act 2007. I propose to outline to the House in greater detail the principal elements of the Bill.
As I have indicated, section 2 is the kernel of the Bill and, in summary, the proposed amendments are intended to ensure that activities and services concerning animals, which have traditionally been carried out safely by non-veterinarians or nurses, do not become reserved to the veterinary profession.
By way of background, I might explain that it was decided when drafting the 2005 Act to address a shortcoming in the previous legislation by creating a greater degree of legal certainty around what constitutes veterinary practice or, as the Act terms it, "the practice of veterinary medicine". Accordingly, the 2005 Veterinary Practice Act includes, at section 53, a definition of the concept of veterinary practice.
However, since the 2005 Act came into force, the Veterinary Council of Ireland, the regulatory body for the profession charged with day to day implementation of the Act, has raised concerns with my Department that the definition of veterinary practice could be interpreted as embracing a range of procedures or activities which have traditionally been carried out by non-veterinarians with appropriate skills, training and experience. Examples of such procedures identified to date include farriery, equine dentistry, bovine hoof trimming, micro-chipping of companion animals, scanning of cattle and sheep and physiotherapy. The legal advice that my Department obtained also indicated that there could be doubt about the status of such procedures carried out on animals, particularly in the event that legal disputes arise.
As I mentioned in my introductory remarks, competitiveness is a key issue for our economy, including the agrifood sector. Against this background, it would be invidious if we permitted the provision of certain services to farmers and other animal owners to become overly restrictive, with the negative cost implications that would result for those concerned. It is, therefore, appropriate to address the situation. The Office of the Attorney General advised my Department that this could be achieved comprehensively only by means of an amendment to the Veterinary Practice Act 2005, and that is what the Bill comprises. Under the amendments I am proposing, my office would be vested with a delegated power to make regulations to exempt specific procedures from being reserved to registered persons. The exercise of this function would be subject to appropriate principles and policies approved by this House and set down in the primary amending legislation. We can, of course, examine these aspects in much greater detail at Committee Stage, and I look forward to that. I believe it is appropriate that there should be formal consultation with the Veterinary Council of Ireland before any activity is exempted, and the Bill provides for this.
The amendments also provide for exemptions to be made subject to appropriate conditions, including certain education, training and skills, membership of specific bodies and so on. In that way, the process will build on the informal arrangements that are in place across the disparate groups involved, and this will provide clients with a greater degree of quality assurance. I think we would all support that. It will also facilitate, where appropriate, specification of the parameters associated with particular procedures that can be performed by non-registered persons, which will bring much more legal certainty to the area. My Department has consulted widely on the issue and I am pleased to say that there has been a general welcome to the matter being addressed. Indeed, many groups that represent current service providers see the changes as a basis for developing their areas of activity in accordance with best practice.
I turn to the main themes of the other amendments in the Bill, the first of which is disciplinary procedures and enforcement. The professions, including the veterinary profession, occupy an important and somewhat privileged position in society. Given their nature, society places a great deal of trust in them. It is, therefore, critical that society has confidence in the way in which the profession is regulated. This places a particular responsibility on us, as legislators, to ensure that the legislation that underpins the professions guarantees that regulation is robust, effective and transparent and that any hint of closing of ranks around a colleague is avoided. The Veterinary Practice Act 2005 brought regulation of the profession up to date in many important respects, introducing more external representation at council level, an external chair of its fitness to practise committee, publication of the findings of disciplinary proceedings and so on. Although the mechanisms are working well, we know from feedback from the Veterinary Council of Ireland that some changes are needed and I propose to adapt some provisions to further improve their effectiveness.
The first amendment, which is in section 4 of the Bill, is designed to give the Veterinary Council of Ireland a greater range of options in the sanctions it can apply when its fitness to practise committee upholds a complaint against a veterinary practitioner or nurse. Under section 80 of the 2005 Act, the council is permitted to apply a sanction only when the fitness to practise committee has made an explicit finding of unfitness to practise. I propose that, when the fitness to practise committee upholds an aspect of the substantive complaint, it should have the discretion to determine the appropriate penalty from the range specified in the legislation, even if there is no finding of unfitness to practise. It follows that, in exercising this function, the council will be required to apply penalties that are appropriate to the scale and import of the breach that has been established.
In section 9(i) of the Bill, I propose to amend the definition of professional misconduct. As Deputies will appreciate, this definition is critical for the purposes of upholding standards in the profession. As I said, members of a profession must be measured against the highest standards, reflecting their role in society. Legislation governing the regulation of doctors and pharmacists has come into force since 2005. I propose, therefore, to adapt the definition of professional misconduct in the 2005 Act and align it as far as possible with the equivalent provisions in the more recent profession-regulating legislation by including certain behaviours or activities that, while not directly impinging on the role of veterinary practitioner or veterinary nurse, may nevertheless bring the profession into disrepute.
In section 7 of the Bill, it is proposed to improve the effectiveness of the council's investigative and enforcement functions. Experience in Ireland and elsewhere has demonstrated the need for regulatory bodies, where necessary, to be able to investigate complaints or concerns quickly, for example, before evidence can be removed or destroyed. Under section 126 of the 2005 Act, authorised officers of the council are required to obtain a search warrant in order to enter premises unless the agreement of the person concerned is forthcoming. The council has expressed the view to my Department that this requirement unduly inhibits its ability to investigate quickly and effectively. Accordingly, I propose to enable authorised officers of the council to enter premises, where this is necessary for the purposes of carrying out an investigation, without the need to obtain a search warrant from a District Court judge. I stress, however, that a search warrant will continue to be needed to enter a domestic dwelling, and rightly so. This approach is generally followed in powers of entry for authorised officers and it follows the approach in, for example, the Pharmacy Act 2007. A number of other minor procedural amendments are proposed in the area of disciplinary procedures and these can be examined in more detail on Committee Stage.
A requirement for indemnity insurance is not a feature of the 2005 Act, and the Veterinary Council of Ireland believes we should avail of the current legislative opportunity to address this deficiency. From a public policy point of view, I believe that provision should be made to ensure that clients of registered persons are protected against adverse events where civil liability attaches to the professional. Thus, section 3 of the Bill proposes the insertion a new provision into the 2005 Act to enable the council, with the Minister's consent, to make regulations making indemnity insurance mandatory for specific types of veterinary practice. The requirement will not apply to practitioners in respect of official duties.
On registration, I mentioned earlier that the 2005 Act was a major milestone in the development of the veterinary nursing profession in Ireland. It provides for recognition of appropriately trained nurses from Ireland and other EU states, and it provides for transitional arrangements for nurses who had been practising as such before the legislation was contemplated, by affording them a five-year period to formalise their education status. However, provision now needs to be made to enable the council to register nurses who come from third countries. The council has also identified a need for registration processes for people with particular expertise in the field of veterinary nursing to assist in the delivery of courses at education and training establishments. The amendments in section 6 of the Bill are designed to address these issues by providing the Veterinary Council of Ireland with a broader range of recognition options in the case of veterinary nurses. The range of options for veterinary nurses will be put on a par with the options that the 2005 Act provides for veterinary practitioners. Also, in the area of registration, I propose to avail of this legislative opportunity to remove any doubt that the registration mechanisms are capable of accommodating short-term registration of, for example, veterinary specialists from third countries who are accompanying horses from overseas participating in sporting events.
Mutual recognition arrangements for veterinary practitioners and six other professions, including doctors and dentists, have been a reality at EU level for many years. These arrangements operate on the basis that training requirements in each member state are required to reach a common EU standard. More recently, as part of the initiatives at EU level to make the Single Market a reality across a range of services, free movement arrangements were extended to various activities, including veterinary nursing, where minimum educational standards are not co-ordinated at EU level. This process included initiatives to make it easier for veterinary practitioners and veterinary nurses, as well as a host of other service providers, to provide services on a temporary basis across national borders.
This regime at EU level is laid down in Directive 2005/36, which has been transposed into our national legislation through the European Communities (Veterinary Practice Act 2005) (Qualifications in Veterinary Medicine) Regulations 2007 (SI No 745 of 2007). However, taking account of legal advice, it is felt to be appropriate to avail of this opportunity to consolidate the Statute Book by restating, in primary legislation, relevant provisions currently contained in the statutory instrument already referred to; this is the purpose of section 8 of the Bill. In addition, to take account of observations received from the European Commission on three minor technical aspects of SI 745 of 2007, the relevant provisions are being adjusted to align them more closely with the requirements of the directive. The amendments concerned relate to the status, in the home EU state, of the veterinary practitioner or nurse wishing to provide cross-border services on a temporary basis in this country and the time limit governing such applications. Again, we can discuss these issues in greater detail on Committee Stage.
The Bill also contains a number of other miscellaneous and consequential amendments in section 9, mainly designed to facilitate greater efficiency in the carrying out of the council's business, including in areas such as filling of casual vacancies and quorums for meetings.
It is timely to amend the Veterinary Practice Act 2005 in the way I have outlined. I look forward to hearing the views of Deputies and to a more detailed examination of the proposed amendments on Committee Stage. I commend the Bill to the House.