Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I would like the Minister of State to clear up another matter. He said that the Government has accepted the pharmacy review group's recommendation about the beneficial interests of those dispensing and prescribing. Does the Minister of State not find it strange that the Government has missed the boat in this regard?

Last year, the Tánaiste opened a clinic in which there is an obvious combination of those dispensing and prescribing. The ownership of the building in question is vested in a single group. Groups of doctors, pharmacists or businessmen are planning to establish many more centres containing both pharmacies and general practitioners' clinics. Pharmacists are being invited to become involved in such clinics. I use the term "invited" in a loose sense because pharmacists are asked to pay €1.2 million for their invitations.

Does the Minister of State agree that the Government has missed the boat by accepting the pharmacy review group's recommendation? By the time the necessary legislation has been passed, it will be almost irrelevant and impossible to implement because the primary care scene will have changed dramatically in the manner I have outlined.

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