At a recent seminar on the future of pharmacy in Ireland, the American experience was discussed and the dangers associated with a free market in the delivery of pharmacy services. Their experience is that rural health care suffered in a deregulated market because multinationals concentrated mostly in large population centres – the US chains concentrated on the east and west coasts. This will hit hardest the highest users of pharmacy services – the elderly, the long-term ill, etc. – who will have to travel further for access to these services. In Norway, the Government deregulated pharmacy services 18 months ago and today three chains own 70% of all pharmacies. There is no reason to believe the Irish experience will be any different.