The Irish Farmers' Association - IFA

Lobbying Organisation The Irish Farmers' Association - IFA

Date published 16 Sep, 2024

Relevant Matter Matters involving public funds

Public Policy Area EU Affairs

Period 1 May, 2024 to 31 Aug, 2024

Specific Details VAT on Animal Vaccines

Intended results To highlight that the rate of VAT charged on animal vaccines is a decision for Government in the upcoming budget as the EU VAT Directive allows for member states to reduce the rate of VAT on these products to 0%. To highlight that the Department of Agriculture committed to reducing the rate to 0% in 2025 from the current rate of 23% to IFA and publicly in June 2022 based on the facilitation provided in the EU Vat Directive. To call on the Minister for Agriculture and his Government colleagues to deliver on this commitment in the upcoming budget and enact the 0% rate on animal vaccines from 1st January 2025. To highlight that the Government have talked up the importance of addressing AMR and have developed ‘iNAP' which incorporates best practices in reducing dependence on antibiotics in human and animal treatments. For farmers one of the most important tools in delivering on this is access to competitively prices vaccines. Almost €40m is spent each year on vaccines, 23% or almost €10m of which is VAT that does not need to be applied. To emphasise that there is now a real opportunity for Government to show if they truly support farmers and industry in reducing AMR or are they content to just pay lip service to reducing dependence on antibiotic usage while failing to provide meaningful support to assist farmers in reducing AMR at zero cost to the exchequer. To stress that the Department of Agriculture also has a serious role to play in ensuring vaccine availability for farmers at critical times of the year and must up their game. Over the past number of years farmers have experienced increasing levels of certain vaccine shortages at critical usage times and the situation for a number of products is worse this year. To highlight that the availability of vaccines when needed is critical for farmers in protecting and maintaining the health, welfare and productivity of the animals while reducing the needs for antibiotic usage. These actions are being severely hampered on farms by the failure of the Department of Agriculture to ensure that there are adequate supplies of suitable products available in the market place. To highlight that these products are too important for farmers and to the health of the animals to be left to chance or commercial decisions of pharmaceutical companies or medicine suppliers, the Department of Agriculture must be more proactive in identifying early if there are to be supply issues or shortages and ensuring that these are addressed. To call on the Minister for Agriculture to ensure his officials act immediately to address the shortages of important vaccines that farmers are encountering.

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity TJ Maher IFA Animal Health Chair, Donal Callaghan IFA Policy Executive

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Email (1)

Informal communication (2-5)

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Charlie McConalogue Minister (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Aodhan O'Riordain MEP (European Parliament)

Barry Andrews MEP (European Parliament)

Billy Kelleher MEP (European Parliament)

Ciaran Mullooly MEP (European Parliament)

Cynthia Ní Mhurchú MEP (European Parliament)

Kathleen Funchion MEP (European Parliament)

Luke Ming Flanagan MEP (European Parliament)

Lynn Boylan MEP (European Parliament)

Maria Walsh MEP (European Parliament)

Michael McNamara MEP (European Parliament)

Nina Carberry MEP (European Parliament)

Regina Doherty MEP (European Parliament)

Sean Kelly MEP (European Parliament)

Amii McKeever Adviser to Minister (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Barry Cowen MEP (European Parliament)