Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

In concluding her speech, the Minister said: "The provisions in the Bill are intended to put the regulation of the profession of pharmacy in the State on a firm, modern and robust footing, having regard to the need to protect, maintain and promote the health and safety of the public." It is interesting that she used those fine words when introducing the Bill. Elsewhere in her speech she told us that this is not the final version of Bill, as she will introduce further amendments on Committee Stage. We have had similar occurrences in recent weeks. The Pharmacy Bill was rushed through the Seanad this week and I am unclear as to what is happening here this morning. The Health Bill to establish HIQA and the Medical Practitioners Bill flew through the House.

I have spent 20 years in medicine, in college, in training as a doctor and working as a GP. In the past two weeks it has taken all my skills and knowledge of the medical profession to try to keep up with what the Minister is doing in the Bill. This is the craziest way of regulating any medical profession.

We must give seven days notice of our amendments to legislation. Yesterday the Minister brought through amendments to the Bill in the Seanad. The previous day, she had the legal representatives of the Government trying to work out what was going wrong with the Bill. We do not know what the Minister is doing. Some of her proposals are fine and will probably work out all right — I certainly hope so — but nobody in the House has confidence that we know what is happening in the Bill. Even the Minister will acknowledge what she is doing is crazy.

When I am asked to discuss health matters in the House, I do not expect all Members in the House to have the same level of knowledge as the Minister or I might have of the health portfolio, but I have heard Members of the House refer to organisations such as Comhairle na nOspidéal, the Medical Council, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the Irish College of General Practitioners, the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish Hospital Consultants Organisation as if all those organisations were interchangeable or the same organisation. I have listened to Members refer to the Irish Pharmaceutical Union as if it is the regulatory body for pharmacists, which of course it is not — the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland is the regulatory body.

When we discussed the Medical Practitioners Bill, the Minister stated that two members of the HSE would sit on the board, but they are not sitting on An Bord Altranais because it was established 20 years ago. Yet, today I find the Minister has a member of the HSE sitting on the board of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland. I was not even sure if the initial legislation, as published by the Minister, allowed for someone from the HSE to sit on the board of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland.

There is huge confusion as to what is happening, in particular with regard to how patients are supposed to report problems. For example, what happens if someone decides to make a complaint about having contracted MRSA in the Irish health care service, for example, from using a swab? To whom would that person complain? If the person wants to make a complaint about a doctor, he or she must complain to the Medical Council. If the person believes he or she contracted MRSA in the hospital, he or she must use the Part 9 complaints procedure of the HSE. If the person feels it might have something to do with the pharmacist, he or she must go to the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland to complain that the pharmacist might not have done the job properly. If the person has concerns that nurses did not wash their hands, he or she must make a complaint to An Bord Altranais.

The Minister might think she is doing patients a great favour, but she is doing nothing for them. When all this legislation was first being discussed four or five years ago and when it was coming to the forefront in the Dáil, one of the proposals Fine Gael and the Labour Party put forward to genuinely protect patients' interests was the establishment of a patient safety authority. If we have learned anything from the past two weeks, given the Government's messing around and rushing through of legislation — they know they have made a mess of things — it is that they have left it too late. There are probably two weeks left in this Dáil, yet the Government is regulating the medical profession, the pharmacy profession, the health services and the nursing homes in just two weeks.

There is great concern. Members on this side of the House take this matter seriously and do not flippantly rush through legislation. The Minister introduced amendments only yesterday but expects me to discuss them today as if they are now the Government's position. She does not take patient safety seriously. If she did, it is a patient safety authority——

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