World Pharmacists Week: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24 ============================================================ Gillian Toole (IND), Meath East Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Murnane O’Connor agus an tAire, an Teachta, Carroll MacNeill atá imithe anois. This is indeed a wonderful day. We are empowering pharmacists for healthier futures. There is a massive opportunity, as others have said, to capitalise on that. I thank the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, their teams in the Department, the task force, the Health Service Executive, the Irish Pharmacy Union - present in the Gallery are President Ms Caoimhe McAuley and her team - and all of the people who work in hospitals, community pharmacies and the industry in general throughout the country for the massive contribution that has been made over the years. The Minister of State and the Minister recognise the valuable contribution pharmacists make to people's health, consistently delivering new initiatives and being able, professional, proficient, efficient and willing to rise to any challenges or opportunities that arise. Probably the most salient development that will be of benefit in the context of the safety of patients, but also from the perspective of the Exchequer, is that relating to the medicines optimisation scheme. We have the common conditions service, MediBack and the very worthwhile, softer and more social service available that is the safe pharmacy programme, a facility for anyone experiencing domestic violence to present at a community pharmacy and receive the support of a properly and appropriately trained team. Pharmacists also have a health promotion role, involvement in bowel screening and will soon be able to prescribe contraceptives. I will pick up on a point made by Deputy Cullinane about the potential for chronic disease projects going forward. That is something the Irish Pharmacy Union and Healthy Meath rolled out about three or four years ago. IT went down exceptionally well and the pilot has been carried out. With both the Minister of State's support and funding, that is something which would be almost ready to be rolled out nationally. Pharmacists are also especially important in areas of social deprivation and disadvantage. Deputy Rice mentioned the Travelling community, In Navan, County Meath, pharmacists play a supportive role across the areas of addiction, compliance in respect of medicines and general family support. That should be recognised. There is also a soft and social role for pharmacists in the support of older people in terms of health literacy and - a simple point - loneliness. We know from a 2023 report that 20% of Ireland's population reported that they experience loneliness. That compares with an EU average of 13%. Again, that feeds into the customer satisfaction rating of approximately 98% for community pharmacies. Everything else has already been said, so I will not duplicate anything. My recommendation to the Minister of State is to maintain the momentum and to continue to invest and provide appropriate resources. Pharmacists will provide more services to communities. That will increase healthcare capacity and play an even greater role in meeting people's healthcare needs. I draw the Minister of State's attention to the IPU's submission for budget 2027. Every proposal it contains would deliver a significant return on investment, not solely in a monetary sense but also in the context of the safety of the healthcare that is provided to members of the public. It would also have a benefit for the Exchequer, but the key aspect is safety. It would present an opportunity, in exchange for a very small investment, to gain a massive amount for healthcare. That has already been demonstrated by the Minister of State's willingness to negotiate a very robust community pharmacy agreement. The potential to expand on that is effectively limitless. We are dealing with a community of people. I call it a community because the people involved in pharmacy across the three different disciplines are committed, efficient, professional and trained to the highest standards. This goes back to the retail experience in particular. If the door is open, you take whatever challenge comes at you. You try to meet the needs of people where they are at. That is even done in the context of medicine shortages, and often the customer never knows that there is a crisis happening in the background. --- 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