Mr. Niall Byrne:

To follow up on the comments from the Department of Health officials, the position of the PSI is as set out in our statement. We very much support the work to develop the access programme and the members of staff of the PSI are involved with that work. We are very committed to ensuring our contribution to that work is very much focused, as I stated earlier in my statement, on the principle that the access scheme will work for patients accessing cannabis for medical use. From the point of view of supply being made through registered pharmacies by registered pharmacists, all of that would be on a safe, sustainable and proper footing. In exercising their professional judgment, pharmacists should do so in circumstances where there is as much clarity as possible in the decisions they make. A registered pharmacy is not just a shop and it is very important to say it is a particular type of service. It is governed by very clear regulatory requirements as to how the service operates. With regard to the dispensary aspect of a pharmacy in particular, it would operate under the personal supervision of a registered pharmacist, who is subject to accountability requirements of the PSI and a statutory code of conduct. Everything the pharmacist does happens within the regulated entity and the pharmacist exercises his or her professional judgment at all times. The PSI position is that this creates an appropriate scheme of regulation that is focused very clearly on the safety of the public. The code of conduct goes into these matters in great detail and the PSI's role is to ensure those mechanisms work in practice.

In circumstances where we are looking at an access programme that represents a degree of change to existing circumstances, we have no reason to believe that pharmacists in general would not be disposed to following the PSI concept of engaging in and taking part in developments that are about trying to meet patient need in new and different kinds of ways. At all times this desire would be balanced with the need to maintain public safety. The balance is not easy or simple and the deliberations of the committee are very much highlighting that complexity. Our role is to try to be part of that balancing discussion while bringing our expertise and experience to bear on that.

In summary, we believe the access programme accords with those kinds of principles and the requirements of public safety. We are very keen to be involved in ensuring it delivers for patients who come to a pharmacy with a prescription so they can have the prescription dispensed in a safe and effective way.