Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, and welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill.

There are three aspects to this Bill. First, it is a significant attack on the poorest people in this country; second, it places an extra burden on the pharmacists; and third, it increases the workload of the HSE. Those are the three areas into which I have broken up this Bill.

No doubt it is an attack on the weakest and poorest in society. The Government has stated over the past two years that with the financial crisis, into which it has led this country over the past 12 years, it would protect the weakest and the most vulnerable. This is an attack on them. To those people, €10 is quite an amount of money. Those people, in most cases, are hard done by in any event and they are the weakest and poorest in society.

Second, it puts an extra burden on the pharmacists who must keep extra records and take on extra staff. I would ask the Minister to state how this will affect their businesses. Over the past year and a half, the Minister put her own views on pharmacy and pharmacists on the record. They have been severely hit financially. Some of them have been in a terrible financial crisis over the past number of years. However, this places an additional burden on them.

In addition, new regulations state that pharmacists must have interview rooms. Some pharmacists throughout the country have premises with small square footage and to put in interview rooms will be difficult in some cases. It would be okay for big outlets such as Boots but for small family-run pharmacists, who provide a significant service, particularly in rural areas and who know the people and know what they want the minute the come in the door, to have to put in a private interview room will place another burden on them. I ask the Minister to get whoever is responsible for this to have a fresh look at it because it is unwarranted in many cases.

Third, the Bill puts an extra workload on the HSE to keep all of these records and go through all the costs and savings the Minister states will be associated with it. Will it require additional staff for the HSE? Will the HSE have to take on more staff or will it redeploy staff from within the Civil Service or the HSE? No doubt it will involve a good deal of bookkeeping and record holding, and probably visiting pharmacists and going through their books. That will require additional staffing. I hope the Minister will not employ extra staff and that staff will be redeployed instead. Several initiatives introduced by the Government in recent years have entailed expansion in the Civil Service and its various offshoots. This places a sizable burden on the businesses associated with them. I hope the Minister will be able to tell us the Bill will not lead to further employment, but that staff will be redeployed. We all know there is waste within various sections of the Civil Service, the HSE and other bodies. I hope the Minister will outline the situation before we adjudicate on the Bill.