World Pharmacists Week: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
============================================================

Cathy Bennett (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

I wish to thank the pharmacists for everything they do. Pharmacists play a crucial role within our health services and our primary care system. Within communities, they provide a vital service, often as part of a first call if a person is feeling unwell. They often help in a failing health system where patients are subjected to huge waiting lists for primary and clinical care. The role pharmacists play and the services they offer have developed over the years, especially in more recent years as we have sought to address shortcomings within our primary care system.
Universal healthcare, in my opinion, necessitates pharmacy care. Going by my own engagement with pharmacists, whether as a patient or as a public representative, there seems to be consistent willingness to provide enhanced services and assist in any regard in which they are fully capable and qualified. They just need sufficient engagement, appropriate supports and fair compensation in terms of logistics of delivery. Of course, pharmacists are always invaluable in our hospitals, helping to ensure that medicines are used safely and effectively as outlined by my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, through the example of the 2026 SETU and University Hospital Waterford partnership. They are, however, underutilised and, regretfully, sometimes underengaged and not sufficiently consulted by the Government on matters that significantly impact their ability to best serve their communities.
In terms of underutilisation, I am not sure I ever encountered an issue where pharmacists or their representatives were unwilling to engage and discuss how they could provide additional and enhanced services. However, there seems to be an emerging trend, particularly in recent years, where what I would view as positive announcements were made but someone forgot to work out the detail of how that service would be delivered and sometimes forgot to talk to the pharmacists. Who was that person who forgot to talk to the pharmacists? If they did talk, they did not listen. A perfect example was the free hormone replacement therapy, HRT, system. I welcomed the scheme and I commend the Minister for her part in developing it in principle and shepherding it through her Department, the Cabinet and so on, but there seemed to be a major disconnect somewhere along the line with regard to realising that, perhaps, the pharmacists who would actually administer the scheme might have some thoughts or needs with respect to its operation. The Minister may laugh but did she consult the pharmacists?

---

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/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24