Mr. Dermot Twomey:

I thank the Chair and committee for allowing us to present today. The Chair captured a number of the points very well. Our colleagues would be very pleased if the committee was able to follow up on those action points. It is important to us to examine the cognitive administrative burden, as my colleague, Dr. O'Dwyer, mentioned regarding ICT and e-prescribing. It is becoming more of an issue. Deputy Shortall mentioned Cariban, as did other members. The increasing number of restrictive medicines coming with certain criteria attached is adding to our cognitive and administrative burden.

We are filling paper, for the want of a better word, to see if these products are allowed. We need to use the other side of our brains dealing with the clinical stuff on which I engaged with Deputy Shortall and others previously. That is where we really want to be spending our time. The use of e-health, e-prescribing and something similar to the national medicinal products catalogue is a way to move that forward, make the job easier and, ultimately, achieve better health outcomes for the patient. On another area for follow-up, it is very important to the Irish Pharmacy Union that the process for registering members of the workforce from outside this jurisdiction, in other words, registration of third-country applicants from outside the EU, is speeded up. There is a process there but it is painfully slow. It is taking years. There will be real pressure on the pharmacy sector this summer so it is very important that this issue is looked at.

The final point, as was mentioned, is the need for positive engagement on fees with the Minister and Department in order to underpin the sector, both from a workforce and resource point of view going forward.