Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will stop Mr. Conlon there because we had this before about ten years ago with the use of the flu vaccination. There was massive pushback from the medical profession to the effect that pharmacists should not be injecting vaccines. When I was studying at undergraduate level 20 years ago, it was never assumed that would be part of a pharmacist's role but we managed it, we upskilled and we did it. There was all sorts of scaremongering that people would have anaphylactic reactions in pharmacies all over Ireland but none of that happened. It has been hailed as a huge success in patient satisfaction, in accessibility and in the ultimate goal of having a high uptake of the flu vaccine and convenience for patients. It has worked in a far more invasive and riskier setting in respect of the vaccine. We were heading towards a swine flu epidemic at the time and so there was an appetite to do it. Just because there is no major unwanted pregnancy epidemic in the country now does not mean we should pull back from this. That is why I cannot understand the logic because this shift happened before in administration and the same arguments that were used ten years ago are being used about the contraceptive pill.