World Pharmacists Week: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24 ============================================================ Albert Dolan (FF), Galway East As we work to mark World Pharmacy Week with World Pharmacists Day tomorrow, I want to thank pharmacists and their teams across Galway East and throughout the country for the work they do every day. In towns and villages across my constituency, the pharmacy is somewhere people know they can turn to. They can walk through the door, speak to someone they trust and get professional advice about something that is worrying them. That might be a parent concerned about a child. It could be somebody adjusting to a new prescription or an older person who needs a little extra time to understand their medication. Those conversations are crucial. The reassurance, patience and personal attention that pharmacists provide make a real difference to people’s lives. I do not think we can ever underestimate that. In rural communities in particular, the value of having that expertise close to home cannot be overstated. Accessing healthcare can mean arranging a lift, taking time off work or travelling a considerable distance. The local pharmacy provides an accessible connection to care. I also acknowledge all of the pharmacy technicians and support staff. Their contribution is essential to the service that patients receive. There has been meaningful progress in support of this sector, which I welcome. The community pharmacy agreement provides over €75 million in additional investment across 2025 and 2026, and the common conditions service launched in January is an important expansion of the pharmacists’ clinician role. However, if we want pharmacies to take on greater responsibilities, we must address the pressures they face. I would highlight four of them today. The first is financial sustainability. Pharmacies face rising operating costs, just like other businesses, while carrying significant healthcare responsibilities. Funding must reflect the professional time, staffing and facilities needed to deliver services safely. The second is workforce capacity. New services require trained people and time with patients. We have to support recruitment, retention and continuing professional development, including for pharmacies that serve rural communities like those I represent in east Galway. The third is that medical shortages can cause understandable anxiety for patients and create considerable additional work for pharmacists in the context of trying to secure supplies or arrange appropriate alternatives. We need to strengthen co-ordination and ensure that pharmacy teams have timely information and practical support. The fourth is administration support. I welcome the legislation that will enable greater electronic record-keeping. We need to ensure that it translates into less duplication and more time for patient care. These issues deserve attention because there is considerable potential for pharmacies to do more. I strongly support making the pharmacy the first port of call for a wider range of appropriate healthcare needs. The common conditions service already enables pharmacists to assess and treat eight specified conditions under approved clinical protocols. This highlights that more than 90% of pharmacies are delivering it. That gives us a strong foundation. The planned evaluation should examine patients' experiences, access and outcomes and help identify where these services can safely expand. We need to be ambitious about the next stage. That will be absolutely crucial for patients because being able to receive appropriate care locally can mean getting a problem assessed sooner. It can also help free up GP capacity for people who need the services of a doctor. Knowing when to refer somebody on is central to the pharmacist's role. Expansion should strengthen co-operation between pharmacists, GPs and healthcare professionals, with clear referral pathways and better communication for everyone. I also welcome the legislation that enables pharmacists to prescribe contraception. Its implementation offers an opportunity to make care more accessible and convenient for women. We should ensure that participating pharmacies are supported and that women understand how to access this service and receive all the support they require. The new medicines optimisation service is another important development. People managing several medicines, particularly vulnerable patients, can benefit from support to understand their treatment and take medicines correctly. We should build on that work, including through better co-ordination when someone leaves hospital with changes to their medication. That is really important. There is also significant scope for pharmacies to play a greater role in education and prevention. Vaccination, smoking cessation, blood pressure checks and support to participate in screening programmes are all areas in respect of which accessible community care can make a difference. I have just come from a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts at which representatives from the HSE discussed with us the money that is being spent. The one thing everyone continues to agree on is the need to move care out to the community in order to free up space, capacity and theatres within our hospitals such that people will get preventative care as close to home as possible and do not end up in emergency departments. I would like to see a clear plan for the next phase of expansion that sets out: the services to be developed; the training and funding that will be required; and how rural communities like those in east Galway will benefit. Public awareness has to be part of such a plan. People need to know what their pharmacy can offer, when to use it and what changes may apply. Affordability for patients has to be considered at every step. Pharmacists should be closely involved in shaping this work. It goes without saying that whatever the next phase of expanding the pharmacist's role in our communities is, they must be consulted and engaged. I again thank our pharmacists and pharmacy teams right across east Galway and the remainder of the country. They have earned the trust of their communities through years of personal service. We should recognise that contribution by supporting them to use their skills more fully and deliver more care close to home. --- 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