Mr. Dermot Twomey:

As we mentioned, it is about thinking outside the box, being agile, and looking at being disruptive. As Dr. O'Dwyer and my colleagues said, it is ultimately about patient care and lack of planning. In fairness to the Minister, during the meeting he certainly seemed very keen to move forward on some of these proposals. Colleagues who have been president of the IPU before me - Ms Maher was one a number of years ago - have heard similar words and platitudes. It is about action at this stage.

I will give a little more context on minor ailments. It is about equity of access. A person with money in his or her pocket is able to get a particular product. That individual can source the product and get it in the pharmacy whereas the person with a medical card has to recourse back to his or her GP. That is an inequitable system. Equally, as Dr. O'Dwyer mentioned, it is about expanding the scope of practice. There are a number of other conditions for which the products are currently prescription-only. It is about thinking big and moving on some of those and, as has been said, working under protocols. Very often, there may be scenarios where we will not supply a product. As another Deputy mentioned in respect of emergency contraception, we often do consultations where a product supply is not suitable and a patient is referred to a GP. We see that still being the case with regard to minor ailments.