Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I move amendment No. 10:

In page 20, line 35, to delete "may" and substitute "shall".

The amendment proposes to change the requirement on the Minister in regard to making regulations. The Bill states: "The Minister may, for the purposes of the health, safety and convenience of the public, make regulations about all or any of the following matters in respect of retail pharmacy businesses". When one reads this, it raises the question that if there are health and safety issues, there must be an onus on the Minister to deal with them. It is not a matter of choice so that if there are health and safety issues in the retail pharmacy business, the Minister might or might not deal with them by way of regulation. That seems an irresponsible approach. If these issues arise, the Minister shall make the regulations. If they do not arise, the Minister will not do so.

The danger is that the subsection could be interpreted as suggesting the choice is with the Minister whether to pay attention to health, safety and convenience of the public issues. That is not good enough. We are talking about patient safety. This is a practical, immediate way to protect patients and to establish a certain requirement on the Minister to live up to his or her responsibility. Ministers are very good at making everybody else live up to their responsibility but, in this instance, I would have thought it was more appropriate to be crystal clear on what must be done in regard to the health, safety and convenience to the public. This point was raised by the hospital pharmacists, who feel it is vital from a patient safety point of view because it allows for the setting of standards both for practice and pharmacy premises and will ensure quality and safety of pharmacy service. It must also apply to the practice of all pharmacists and their premises, including hospital pharmacists in hospital pharmacy departments.

Committee Stage is a bit of a blur now because of the amount of material covered in debate, but as I recall, the Minister indicated then that hospital pharmacies would not necessarily be subject to regulation because of their nature. If we intend bringing in a regulatory framework which is significantly different from the current situation where there is practically no regulatory framework, let us do it right and let us get the responsibilities in place. This is obviously a ministerial responsibility.

There is no timeframe for the implementation of the regulations. This is often an issue with legislation and regulations often take forever to materialise, despite being written into law. However, they are at least written into law. This morning I raised an issue relating to the tobacco legislation for which secondary legislation is required, but we are still waiting for it and nobody seems to know when we will get it. That goes back a couple of years.

It is not as if this amendment imposes an unrealistic or unfair requirement on the Minister. It simply says that where there are issues of health safety or convenience for the public, the Minister "shall" make regulations. I urge the Minister to ensure the amendment is accepted.

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