Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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18. To ask the Minister for Health the up-to-date position on further plans on expansion of the role of community pharmacists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34893/25]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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Pharmacists have shown time and again their great capacity to expand services and provide more and more services to communities locally, for example, vaccinations, repeat prescriptions and in so many other different ways. Will the Minister outline the next steps in expanding the role of pharmacies in community care?

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. I am a huge advocate for the reform and expansion of pharmacy services and the Government is committed to ensuring people can access as much care as possible in the community including in pharmacy, which will play a very large and expanded role in this.

The report of the expert task force to support the expansion of the role of pharmacy was published in August 2024. Its findings provide a framework to inform how we are going to do that. My vision for the future includes pharmacists playing a much larger role in the health service. I am happy now to see the progress being made between my Department and the representatives of the Irish Pharmacy Union, IPU, in this regard.

The priority focus is the development and introduction of a common conditions service in community pharmacy. That service will be the first step in enabling full, independent pharmacist prescribing. It will allow pharmacists in Ireland to treat their patients for common conditions such as shingles, urinary tract infections and conjunctivitis. It will also support the development of new revenue streams for pharmacies.

Development of the service is well under way. It is led by the community pharmacy expansion implementation oversight group. That group meets monthly with the aim of developing the necessary enablers for required to establish the common conditions programme. That includes clinical protocols along with the pharmaceutical regulator, new education and training for pharmacists and a package of required regulations.

We aim to have all of these in place to facilitate pharmacies to establish this new service before the end of the year. Deputy Ó Muirí asked about GP care. The huge advantage of this is that it will take some of the work from GPs into pharmacies that can be done more easily. From the patient's perspective, I would like a patient to be able to go into a pharmacy, be diagnosed for a simple and common condition of this kind and pay a fee to do so, and get their prescription there and then rather than go to a GP, pay a GP fee, go back to the pharmacy and pay for the prescription. All of that can be taken into one. The intention is that this would be the basis for beginning this, recognising that taking that approach will expand access to healthcare generally, and that patients in the general medical services, GMS, scheme and so on still have that option with GPs but now with, I hope, increased capacity.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. She has kind of pre-empted my next question on GPs.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I am sorry.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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They are under pressure in the complexity and range and the load of the increasing population. GPs in many places are under pressure, especially in rural communities, and medical experts are available beside them with a willingness to expand out and give support.

On the common conditions, it is good to hear that the Minister is aiming to get that done in the months ahead before the end of the year. There is a limited number of conditions the Minister is focusing in on. What is the plan for expanding that out? Have the details on it been discussed yet? Will the Minister give an outline on expanding the conditions for which it could be available?

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The first and most important thing is to take the steps forward to get this going. There was an inertia on that, if I may say, until recently. It has now been progressed and there are detailed negotiations to take the necessary steps forward. I would like to see this in place and operational and then be able to expand it appropriately. I have already said, I think, that the list of common conditions should be expanded. It is not going to be enough but it is no harm to get the practice under way as quickly as possible, make sure it is supported by the appropriate regulatory and training environment, and recognise that pharmacists themselves need more support and more pharmacists' assistants and technicians. They are working under pressure in different ways and need to build their own capacity to do this as well.

My vision for it is that is established, is working well and will be expanded as quickly as possible. Pharmacists are trusted and we need to expand this service as much as possible, recognising that will take that pressure off GPs. For an older woman, in particular, a urinary tract infection can be very dangerous. They need to be seen and diagnosed and get medication early rather than wait for a GP appointment. By moving that into pharmacy, it frees up that slot in a GP practice as well. It is a broader expansion and a good thing generally.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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Pharmacists have been raising with me the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Act 2023 and the dispensing of medication for animals. The implementation of the statutory instrument on that is due shortly. They feel very much that this restricts the capacity to make available veterinary medical products, between the cost of getting a prescription and integration with the computer system and in so many different ways. Can we ensure there would be greater integration in, availability of and access to the prescription system? At the moment, a limited number of vets use the online system. Pharmacists are concerned that there is not access to it. Can we also ensure that pharmacists would be enabled to prescribe antiparasitic medicines for food-producing animals?

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Clarke wanted to ask a supplementary question.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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I cannot fail to take the opportunity to speak further on the issue I raised with the Minister at committee yesterday around the emergency supply scheme, where somebody from a virtual clinic, or leaving as a previous inpatient of a hospital, has 24 hours to get to their GP if they are a medical card holder and will receive only a seven-day supply of medication. There is a very real opportunity for our pharmacists to be more involved in this scheme. It is absolutely bonkers, to be quite frank, that you would have only 24 hours. It also does not reflect the reality of the prevalence of virtual appointments and the lack of need for forms to be filled in triplicate at this point. There has to be a better way of doing it, and a very important part of that would be our pharmacy network.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I agree completely with the Deputy, and I thank her for that. While I do not have an update for her today - it was yesterday we discussed it - I have instructed my officials to see what can be done, and I will revert to her on it.

I have to say Deputy Moynihan has got me. I do not know, and I am going to have to find out. I can tell him about estradot patches and so many different things but I cannot tell him about vets, agriculture and pharmacy. He has got me, and I am going to have to go back and find a proper answer for him. I commit to writing to the Deputy today to make sure that is done. I ask him to please forgive me; I do not know.