John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I am sure the Minister agrees it would be helpful to have a crystal ball when drawing up legislation. It is often difficult to foresee the long-term consequences of the legislation we enact in this House. Some GPs maintain that the question of beneficial interests has not been settled and they have made representations to some of the Minister's colleagues on this point. They are of the strong view that five years hence, there will be undesirable consequences as a result of this legislation. I cannot tell whether that is the case. The Minister is strongly of the view that this issue has been dealt with thoroughly in the legislation. These GPs contend, however, that it will have a hugely detrimental effect on the roll-out of the primary health care strategy. I hope the Minister will consider what they have said.

Previous speakers stated, as I did on Second Stage, that the role of the pharmacist must be greatly enhanced and thoroughly integrated into the primary health care system. I fully support that view. However, I have raised a particular concern with the Minister in regard to empowering nurses and pharmacists to prescribe medications. This is the issue of antibiotic prescribing. It seems there is no consistency across the board in this regard.

How will we regulate and monitor the prescribing of antibiotics? Are there graphs of data to indicate the practices of particular pharmacists? Patients will invariably go to the pharmacy that is closest to their GP's surgery. In Ringsend, for example, people go straight from the health centre to the nearby pharmacy to get their prescriptions. It should be possible to ascertain quickly which GPs seem most inclined to prescribe antibiotics. In fairness to the Minister, she raised this as an issue of concern at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children. What concerns me, however, is her assertion that it would take approximately 12 years to change the prevailing mindset in regard to antibiotic prescribing. We must act quicker than that if we are to deal with the related problem of MRSA. There is no doubt the two are related.

I agree with other speakers that this could be the second last sitting day of this Dáil.

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