Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 10, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: “Report on prescription-free oral contraceptives

9. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on allowing pharmacists to dispense prescription-free oral contraceptives.”.

This concerns an issue that has been around for quite some time, which is the need to move to a situation where oral contraceptives can be provided off prescription by community pharmacists. I know the Minister of State referenced that in talking about her own amendments but she did not provide any particular timescale. She was saying that she was providing for regulations, which would allow various things to happen. I would like to try to pin this down. For that reason, I have proposed that the Minister be required to provide, within six months of the passing of this Act, a report on allowing pharmacists to dispense prescription-free oral contraceptives. There are many reasons we should move to do that as soon as possible.

We know that there continues to be a problem in this country with crisis pregnancy. Having better access to contraception of all kinds - oral contraception is what I am speaking about here - has significant potential for reducing the level of crisis pregnancy. That is a pressing issue, in my view. On the point I made about chronic illness, pharmacists are much more accessible than GPs. It would seem like it does not make any sense to require people to go to a GP and to wait possibly two or three weeks for an appointment to have the expense of seeing a GP in order to get a prescription. For that reason, why not allow people to go directly to the pharmacy to get oral contraception off prescription? It has been reported often, both in Ireland and internationally, that women would much prefer to receive their oral contraception from a pharmacist who they know well and have built up a relationship with.

Of course, we know that Irish pharmacists have been providing emergency contraception off-prescription for quite some time and that works very well. I have not heard of any issues or difficulties whatsoever being raised with that. For the past number of years, all pharmacies have had a private consulting room and that can be used in the same way as it is used for emergency contraception. It is recognised that there is no clinical reason at all that this move could not be made for pharmacists, who are very well trained and experienced. It seems to make sense on many different fronts. Therefore, while I recognise that the Minister of State is saying that her amendments will allow for that to happen at some point in the future, it should not be put on the long finger. For that reason, I propose that the Minister of State accepts an amendment here that would require the Minister to report on how that could be done and how that change could be made. That report should be made available in six months. I hope the Minister of State will support that.

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