Speeches by Robinson.

“Would it be right to say that there are 14 products now considered high risk?”

“Would I be right to say that about 60 products would be considered at medium risk?”

“Yes. Are you aware of discussion around two potential options, one categorised as a critical products list, which would receive the necessary animal health and welfare certificates from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, and a second alternative solution that is described as a cascade model? Does that make any sense…”

“That would envisage a vet diagnosing a problem, believing that they need a medicine, and understanding that there is no alternative to that medicine. You then cascade through a number of options, and essentially on animal welfare grounds that medicine would be made available to that vet. Does that sound about right?”

“Yes. Practically, do you as a veterinary association have concerns that in going through all those steps, it may be that the medicine required by the vet is simply not available, or the distributors do not have an ongoing supply because the individual circumstance has not arisen, and therefore the individual medicine h…”

“What discussion is taking place at the moment—if this is being purported as a solution, how do you get around—”

“Is that not vital? Otherwise, the animal will be dead before you go through the processes envisaged—”

“You mentioned vaccines. My understanding is that the botulism vaccine is not envisaged to be part of this or to be restricted at all. Is that your understanding?”

“In terms of the reduction in number from half to 20% or 15% of potentially impacted medicines available, it has been suggested that the reason for such a significant reduction is twofold—first, that there are licences in operation, or that have been issued for medicines that are not routinely used, and that that forms …”

“You have been candid enough to say that you have not received a critical medicines list, and you do not confirm that the figure sits at 14, but you do not shy away from the 60 at medium risk category. Outside of botulism vaccines, are there any medicines about which you or the Veterinary Association have a significant …”

“On a therapeutic basis or on the basis of experience, do you know of a product that is routinely used and talked of in your industry? Is there no industry chatter? I do not want to encroach on your confidentiality agreement, but is there no industry chatter?”

“Good morning to you all, and hello Lisa—it is nice to see you. You are right that FSB talked about anti-coercion but it also said that there could be a straight exemption for Northern Ireland from the EU, if it chose. The FSB raised it three weeks ago, and I have spoken on it publicly in support. Do you, as an academic…”

“Joël, have you any indication that we are being considered fruitfully?”

“Stormont has now been back for a full 14 months. That has given us the opportunity to see—and for you to indicate to us—how effective you think democratic scrutiny mechanisms have been over that period.”

“Lord Murphy’s review is looking at some of the practical outworkings of these mechanisms. The impediments that have come up thus far include a lack of political will on the Committee to explore individual issues in depth, which seems to be borne out of whether you are pro or anti-EU, so there is no effective scrutiny o…”

“Lisa, have you had an opportunity to consider the Government’s response to the notification of the pulling of the Stormont brake? What does that say or point to in relation to EU alignment and the Government’s intentions in that regard?”

“I think they are hellbent on as much alignment as they can get for the entirety of the country, and that is their political raison d’être. You mentioned the response to the Stormont brake being pulled, and the Government's response highlights one of the deficits. The brake was pulled because the Chemical Industries Ass…”

“Thank you. Joël, do you have reflections on that discussion about the frailties of the process? Last Thursday, the Government decided to add three new chapters on critical minerals and tariffs emerging from Ukraine and Moldova. They did that without seeking an applicability motion from the Northern Ireland Assembly. So…”

“On Moldova and Ukraine, there was a tariff agreement that was almost a reiteration of a pre-existing agreement, save that we are now incorporated in EU quotas, which was not the case before. Somebody might say that was inconsequential and that it was almost a roll-over, but is it not the case that this UK Government ar…”

“They clearly don’t.”