Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In reply to Deputy Gilmore, we are making every effort to try to bring the pharmacy issue to a resolution. Members have met a large number of pharmacists and my colleagues raised the issue with me last week. We have been trying to find a resolution; there are a number of elements involved. Discussions between the HSE and the IPU have continued under Mr. Bill Shipsey, SC on a mechanism to establish the community pharmacy contract. Considerable progress has been made and the HSE management considers it appropriate to allow further time for this process to proceed. The HSE has decided to defer the implementation of the reimbursement rates on 1 December to a later date. That pressure is therefore removed. Members will welcome that decision. It is an issue my colleagues had asked me to raise.

Following the completion of the new agreements with the drugs manufacturers last year, the HSE announced the new arrangements on the margins on 17 September. That affects the basic supply of drugs and medicines. This is distinct from the dispensing fees paid to the community pharmacists under the medical card and drugs payment scheme. The new price arrangements will not come into force on 1 December.

With regard to the Deputy's question about the process of dialogue established under Mr. Shipsey, that process is continuing. As the union does not appear to accept the legal position under the Competition Act, the Minister for Health and Children has been exploring, in consultation with the Attorney General and other relevant Departments, the best way of progressing the development of a new contract with pharmacists. Those discussions are ongoing. Obviously, the Government and Minister are anxious to find a way of making a new arrangement for arriving at revised pricing arrangements for a new pharmacy contract, consistent with the legal advice the Minister has received. Any new process must be consistent with competition law. As I told the House a few weeks ago, it is not Irish competition law but European competition law.

See this speech in context