Ms Kathy Maher:

I believe the Department is very supportive. We would like to have further engagement. Ultimately, as well, we want to think about crisis pregnancies and try to avoid those coming forward. As Mr. Twomey said, today is International Women's Day and it is timely that we are having this conversation. I would like to see this situation change as a matter of urgency. The first step is to address the cost barrier for women. The free contraception scheme is currently for 17 to 26-year-olds and we will see this expand up to 30 come September. We would like to see this scheme provided to all women. We would also like to see the expansion of the availability of contraception without prescription. There may be some concern that long-acting reversible contraceptives, LARCs, are the gold standard, but we must come back to patient choice and let women have the choice. Let them come into us, as pharmacists and the most accessible healthcare professionals, and have the conversation. There will be no assumption that they will go for oral contraception. If we think a LARC is more accessible and beneficial for that patient, we will refer them on.