Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. I agree with the agreement. It is a step forward. Pharmacists are highly qualified people. Doctors around the country are under pressure. An awful lot of people, especially those who do not have medical cards, cannot get an appointment for weeks. If a person has a chest infection or something simple that can be diagnosed quickly, they still have to go to a doctor first, get the prescription and go to the pharmacy. We need to eliminate a lot of that where possible. I am not saying it is for everything. Doctors are needed for their job as well. A person might have a sore ear or a bit of flu. There is an awful lot of stuff that we can trust pharmacists with. We should be moving forward and doing that. It will take pressure off doctors, who are under ferocious pressure. There is a shortage of local GPs, with new patients looking for them. In many parts of Ireland at the moment, if someone wants to see a doctor, they may have to wait a week or two.

We need to do something like we did whereby people can now go to a level 2 hospital and urgent care centre rather than having to go to the likes of an accident and emergency department. If we can do the same with pharmacies for the more simplified cases rather than making people go to the doctor, that would be a great idea. It might get people seen more quickly for certain cases. It will also help doctors see more urgent cases quicker.

I support the agreement. As previous speakers said, there is no point in us announcing something or saying that an agreement will be this, that or other. We need to do it rapidly, get it going, move on and facilitate this as quickly as possible because it is a step in the right direction.

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