Pharmacy Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-21
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Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG), Dún Laoghaire

As the Deputy highlights, this is done through consultation and agreement between the pharmacy union and the HSE. My own Department engages regularly with the pharmacy union. I will ask my officials and the HSE about the nature of that engagement because I am not party to those detailed discussions. I will get a much better answer and provide it to the Deputy. The important point is that there is a measure of consultation and agreement in relation to it. Pharmacists are very excited about this expanded role and about working to the top of their professional medical training. That is what I want to enable. I want to make them a genuine alternative to a GP, where appropriate, as they will be in many, although not all, cases. I want it to be a really natural place to get a prescription and to expand the use of community pharmacies alongside every other part of our health infrastructure. I hope the Deputy will forgive me for not having a better answer than that for him at the moment but I will get him an appropriate answer.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21