There has been a cautious welcome from the farm organisations to the announcement by Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan that there will be no immediate changes in the rules governing the sale of animal drugs here.
At the Fianna Fáil Ardfheis last weekend the Minister announced a delay in the introduction of the new rules until January 1st, 2007.
She had been under heavy pressure from the farm lobby over the plan to make all animal medicines prescription only.
The changes to the current rules are being forced by the EU which has demanded that prescription-only medicines be administered to animals used for human food consumption.
Dominic Cronin, chairman of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association's dairy committee, has said that the new rules on animal remedies would involve increased costs to farmers and restriction on availability and must be changed to allow for a continuation of mastitis control programmes.
However, Mr Cronin welcomed some of the "commonsense measures" in the Minister's announcement. Michael Flynn, of the Irish Farmers' Association, welcomed the Minister's acknowledgment of the role of responsible people other than vets in issuing prescriptions.
"However, many grey areas remain as to the precise mechanism that will operate after January 1st, 2007," he said.
Mr Flynn said that due recognition must be given to the professionalism and competence of farmers and they must be allowed unhindered access to commonly used medicines at competitive prices.
"Information concerning their use must be made readily available to farmers as the ultimate responsibility for animal welfare and traceability rests with them," Mr Flynn said.
Fine Gael's agriculture and food spokesman Denis Naughten welcomed what he described as "the climbdown" by the Minister on some aspects of the prescription-only medicines rules. At the end of the month the Minister would make changes which would mean that as and from January 1st, 2007, the vast majority of animal medicines would require a prescription from a vet and this would add significantly to the cost of treating animals.