It comes after the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland published a paper on the issue on Thursday.

Responding, Carla said:

‘‘Although these latest proposals are presented as progress, the stark reality is that the Government has chosen to prioritise placating the EU over protecting the interests of animals, vets, farmers, and the wider agri-food sector in Northern Ireland.

Since being appointed to the Veterinary Medicines Working Group last year, I have been bound by confidentiality clauses regarding saying anything publicly. However, I have been consistently critical of the process, raising serious concerns - alongside others - about the direction of travel. In reality, this was not a Working Group at all. Stakeholders were spoken to, not worked with. At no point did we in the DUP indicate any level of support for this deeply flawed and unacceptable proposal from the Government.

From 1 January next year, GB-based firms will be unable to supply the NI market without complying with costly and onerous requirements around batch release testing and holding a marketing authorisation holder address in the EU. Over the course of the past five years, just the threat of these rules been enough to prompt many firms into discontinuing supplies to our Province. Now that the Government has agreed to implement them in full, we expect this situation to deteriorate even further.

Fundamentally, this means an almost total blockade on veterinary medicines across the Irish Sea, the diversion of trade from the UK internal market, and reduced resilience in the supply chain. In practical terms, vets and farmers across Northern Ireland face reduced choice and potential delays in accessing the medicines they need to protect animal health and welfare. The proposals provide no pathway to restore supply of products already discontinued and for those that will continue to be supplied, there will inevitably be additional costs as manufacturers may opt only to make smaller packs available. While today’s paper outlines limited mechanisms for accessing GB-sourced products, these appear to be exceptions, not the norm. Only vets will be able to use them, leaving wholesalers and pet shops for example bereft of any additional routes to source vital products. Critically, there is also still no assurance, either in this document or the Minister’s written statement, that critical products like the botulism vaccine will continue to be available without interference. All of this is intolerable.

Given that the EU has said it is now willing to accept food products from England, Scotland and Wales under an SPS agreement - which will be produced using veterinary medicines supplied in GB - under an SPS agreement, why does the Government believe it is either necessary or appropriate to guarantee the continued unfettered supply of those products to Northern Ireland? Where is the logic? The answer, of course, is that there is none.

Instead of resolving this fundamental problem, the Government has simply issued another paper and acquiesced to EU law that does not deal substantively with the concerns raised by the industry and does not enjoy cross-community consent. There have been repeated warnings from major manufacturers like Zoetis about the threat of discontinuation, yet they, and we, have been largely ignored. It is almost as if the Secretary of State is living in a parallel universe.

It is time this Government stood up for the interests of animal health and welfare in Northern Ireland. The Windsor Framework continues to cause significant and far-reaching problems for Northern Ireland, and the fact that it is now placing our animal health in a precarious place should be cause for action, not appeasement. Northern Ireland must have equal access to the veterinary medicines available elsewhere in our country, and it is high time hapless Hilary recognised that."