Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the deferral of the offences and the engagement that will happen, but will the Minister reconsider the manner in which the statutory instrument is being enacted? The directive places the responsibility on the corporate entity but the manner in which it will be implemented places much responsibility directly on the pharmacist but does not place enough emphasis on corporate responsibility. The employer has no obligation, for example, to provide the infrastructure or resources for a worker to carry out his or her duty. While it is all very well to defer the offences, if someone is guilty of an offence, regardless of when the offence might be introduced, there will be no allowance for the fact that it might not be his or her fault. There should be some obligation on the employer, therefore, to ensure the pharmacist has the best chance of not falling foul of the law.

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