Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Fitzgerald for sharing her time with me. I welcome the Minister to the House.

I wish to raise with the Minister today the pharmacy crisis in the west. The Department and Health Service Executive is currently swamping pharmacists with litigation injunctions. It was confirmed to me yesterday by senior sources that there is no contingency plan for the distribution of medicines as of 1 May. We are talking about an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people descending upon community care and accident and emergency at Merlin Park Hospital for medication. Only one pharmacist remains standing in Roscommon and there is a question hanging over Sligo.