Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

Senator Ivor Callely asked about the up-to-date position on the pharmacy dispute. As Senators know, many public representatives from the Taoiseach down were very involved in this matter last week because we were all concerned. Meetings took place over two or three days with Ministers and opposition leaders and the Taoiseach met the pharmacy organisation at the weekend.

I have a letter from Mr. Pat O'Dowd, who is well known to us from the HSE in the midland region, in which he states that in view of the considerable progress in this regard, the HSE has decided to defer to a later date implementation of the new reimbursement rates planned to take effect for community pharmacists on 1 December 2007. He went on to state that the HSE would keep community pharmacists informed of its intention regarding the implementation of the new arrangements and that individual community pharmacists had been informed by letter. The requests genuinely made by Members of both Houses and acted on by the Minister and the Taoiseach have been listened to.

I read a suggestion in a newspaper that the pharmacy people would appoint an independent arbitrator, which is unacceptable. The person appointed must be totally independent if that is the route we take. Many Senators would be more au fait than I with this.

Senator Ivana Bacik raised the question of asylum seekers and their children. I will pass on her view to the Minister to determine if we can have a debate on that issue.