Shane Ross (Independent)

I wish to address a serious issue. Will the Leader ask the Minister for Health and Children to come to the House to address the issue of the pharmacists? This is causing a deafening silence from the Government benches, I suppose because of the situation that will confront us in the coming weeks. Everyone in the House knows that the pharmacists are sending back their contracts and perhaps 50% have already done so. There is a real danger that a nasty confrontation will take place at the beginning of August. It is now and not the beginning of August that we should be addressing this problem. When the Leader agrees to ask the Minister to come to the House to debate this we should ask her at the very least to engage in dialogue with the pharmacists.