Committee for the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific Purposes

In accordance with SI No 434 of 2013 a National Committee for the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific Purposes has been established. The legal remit of the committee is set out in Article 49 of Directive 2010/63/EU and Regulation 59(1) of SI No. 543 of 2012(as amended).

Functions of the National Committee

The Terms of Reference of the Committee are outlined in the following link.

The functions of the National Committee are:

• to advise the HPRA and institutional animal welfare bodies on matters dealing with the acquisition, breeding, accommodation, care and use of scientific animals. The procedure for advising Animal Welfare Bodies is set out in the attached link.
• to ensure the sharing of best practices in Ireland and with other national committees of Member States within the European Union.
• to exchange information on the operation of animal welfare bodies and project evaluation.

Membership of the National Committee

Committee members are appointed by the Minister for Health.

The membership of the committee is as follows:

Eilís Dowd, Michael C. Gaynor (Chairman), Alison J Hanlon, Gillian O'Meara, John Kelly, Ngaire Dennison, Jose Sanchez Morgado, Ian O'Connor and Frank O'Sullivan.

Members possess specialist expertise and competence relevant to the functions of the committee. They are independent in the performance of their duties and, in accordance with the national legislation, they may not be subject to the direction of any other person or body in the performance of their duties.
Please note: The National Committee is not a committee of the HPRA. It is an independent committee with a specific remit as outlined above. The HPRA provides the committee with secretariat support. 

Contact us

If you wish to contact the National Committee, you can email ncsap@hpra.ie. Please note that the HPRA administrative secretariat has the task to monitor this mailbox on behalf of the National Committee. In monitoring the mailbox on behalf of the National Committee, the HPRA administrators act independently of the HPRA agency and do not engage directly with the correspondent to address matters raised; therefore the HPRA agency is not aware of such matters. The National Committee meets infrequently, and while the correspondence will be forwarded in a few days, the Committee itself might not be in a position to consider and respond to any matter raised until it has discussed it.