Health (Provision of Contraception Prescribing Service in Retail Pharmacy Businesses) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
============================================================

Marie Sherlock (LAB), Dublin Central

I thank the Minister. I feel very strongly that in bringing forward amendment No. 2, and I have listened carefully to the Minister's response, that judgment should not be passed on why a 16-year-old girl might present to a pharmacy seeking contraception. It would be very worrying if the message were to go out that we are trying to control or dissuade behaviours. The history of our State has been trying to control and dissuade behaviours when we know that behaviours are happening. The intent behind this amendment in particular is for vulnerable girls out there who are in a situation where they do not have a supportive family environment but perhaps are being exploited in some other context and need access. I hear what the Minister is saying about child protection but at the end of the day we need to look at the health separate to child protection. It is part of child protection but it also has to be considered separately because it is an immediate need for a young woman who legally remains a child but who may be involved in sexual behaviour at the age of 16.
Of course, we know there are other girls who access contraception not because of needing it for the original use but for other health conditions. We need to be very mindful that we want to create a health service that can afford access to those who are in difficult situations. The vast majority of those under the age of 18 will be going with the consent or knowledge of their parents, but there are definitely females out there, particularly in marginalised communities, who need to access contraception and who do not have the means to be making a doctor's appointment. We believe being able to access it through the caring environment of a pharmacy would be really appropriate.
I ask the Minister to reconsider amendment No. 2. As I say, it does not change anything. It merely empowers the Minister to make a decision armed with greater research and evidence at a future date to legislate to lower the age. It is to standardise with the age of consent of 16 and it is important that the Minister should have that power because she is currently precluded from it as we read the 1970 Act.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15