Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I thank those Members who contributed to the debate. As the House is aware, it is hoped to take Committee and Remaining Stages on Thursday. It is the intention to have the Bill enacted into law before our impending rendezvous with reality.

I thank the officials of my Department for producing the Bill. I put them under enormous pressure when I gave a commitment to the presidents of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland and the IPU that the legislation would be enacted on my watch. I was determined this would be the case. When I use the term "on my watch", I am referring to my watch before the general election. I am not anticipating that I will not be back here after the election to steer through the second Bill. I accept the legislation is not a panacea and that it does not deal with all the issues. The second Bill to which I refer will deal with definitions of "community pharmacies", "pharmacy services", etc. It would have been impossible, in the timeframe we set ourselves, to deal with all of these matters in one Bill.

We are very far behind in this area in comparison, for example, to the medical profession, in respect of which legislation was enacted in 1978. Effectively, as far as pharmacists are concerned, there is no fitness to practise regime in this country. That position is not tenable.

I have attended many functions relating to pharmacies in the past two and a half years and I was informed at one such event that 27 years ago the then Minister for Health — I do not want to single him out because I am sure it was not his fault — gave a commitment to the father of the president to whom I spoke that the Bill would shortly be introduced. Pharmacology is obviously a family business and I would not begrudge that.

On liberalisation, I do not accept the argument that we should not do it unless others do it first. In that context, Senator Feeney referred to the smoking ban. When we have embraced innovation and been ambitious, we have done extraordinarily well. What has guided me in introducing this legislation is the fact that many of the people to whom we refer are Irish citizens. There was previously only one pharmacy school in Ireland and it was extraordinarily difficult to gain entry to it. Many Irish people studied overseas as a result and then felt they were at a huge disadvantage in their own country. As Senator Minihan indicated, even though he is not a pharmacist, he owns a pharmacy. However, a qualified pharmacist cannot do so unless he or she is supervised. I came to the conclusion that the latter is extremely unfair. The majority of people who will benefit from the enactment of this legislation — it is clear we cannot discriminate against the citizens of other EU countries — will be our own citizens.

The question of language competency will be a matter for the society to decide on. The society will set the timeframe in this regard. All EU pharmacists must — unlike those who qualify outside the Union, where language can be a requirement of registration — be registered. It will be a matter for the society to set the standard and the timeframe by which that standard must be met. As regards language, it is not merely a case of being fluent in English. One of the challenges for health care professionals at every level is to be able to communicate with patients. Some health care professionals in this country have a long way to go in that regard. I am not referring to the English language capabilities of these individuals but rather to the manner in which they seek to explain matters to patients. People often inform me that they were obliged to rely on a nurse to outline their position because they did not understand the language used by the consultant or that he or she did not communicate the relevant information in a patient-friendly way. The position in this regard is changing but it is doing so slowly. This is a major issue for those involved in health care.

I am a strong fan of empowering all health care professionals to do more. In the chain of care to the patient, the pharmacist has an important role to play. Reference was made to generic substitution. It is not just generic substitution. I would like a situation to develop where pharmacists, perhaps because they have more competence in respect of drugs than doctors or because they are aware that certain drugs might be more suitable for particular patients, would be free to substitute one product for another. I would like us to move in that direction. If we want to ensure that patient care and safety are paramount, I am of the view that it would be appropriate to do so.

At one of the first conferences I attended as Minister for Health and Children, I learned that approximately 10% of people's experiences in hospitals involve adverse events. This is a worldwide statistic because we do not have data in this regard in Ireland. However, I have no doubt the position here is similar. Many of the adverse events to which I refer — thankfully an extremely small percentage of them involved fatal consequences — involve the administration of medication. Certain pills that do different things are contained in similar packaging. Busy nurses — I am not singling them out — can make mistakes when administering medication. Approximately 16% of adverse events are accounted for by mistakes in the administration of medication. That figure is very high. We must, therefore, be extremely cautious and careful when it comes to dispensing and administering medication.

I was somewhat taken aback when Senator Browne referred to people who are not qualified. I would like to discuss that matter with my officials because I am not aware that there are people working in hospitals who are not qualified.