Mr. Dermot Twomey:

I thank the Senator for his question. For out-of-hours and weekend services, many towns would historically have had a rota arrangement between a number of pharmacies to provide those services, particularly on bank holiday weekends and Sundays, etc. In the past 25 or 30 years we have seen a proliferation of pharmacies providing extended hours in certain areas. That has come into conflict with rota arrangements. Rotas are very much local. Over time, because of a particular pharmacy providing a late-night service, the rota fell by the wayside because there was no particular need for it.

What we found in the past year or two is that it has come back a bit. The difficulty we mentioned earlier in terms of having enough qualified pharmacists to work in community pharmacy has led to a shortening of opening hours. Many pharmacies, including some of the late-night ones, have pulled back, which, unfortunately, is probably having an effect at a local level. As an organisation, we are always amenable to discussing issues around that with Government and the Department. It is something we can certainly discuss. Providing those services would have a cost and that cost would need to be discussed.