Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 June 2013
1058. Deputy Seán Kyne asked the Minister for Health if he will confirm the amount of funding allocated to the development and validation of alternative bioscience research method approaches in 2013 with reference to Article 47 (1) of the EU Directive 2010/63/EU. [28097/13]
View answerI would wish to draw to the attention of the Deputy that what is proposed under Article 47 (1) is that the Commission and the Member States shall contribute to the development and validation of alternative approaches which could provide the same or higher levels of information as those obtained in procedures using animals, but which do not involve the use of animals or use fewer animals or which entail less painful procedures, and they shall take such other steps as they consider appropriate to encourage research in this field.
A specific amount of funding is not required to be allocated for this purpose in 2013. The recently appointed Competent Authority for the purpose of Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals for scientific purposes, the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) is currently working with the European Commission regarding the identification and validation on alternative approaches that might be developed in the future.
