Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome to the House for the debate on this very important miscellaneous Bill. I was listening very attentively to Senator Boyhan and the overprescribing of what could be described as some over-the-counter medications could be a problem, and certainly a cost one. It is definitely an issue when it comes to people's health. It is funny how people feel a certain reliance on taking tablets unnecessarily. Certainly, the word needs to be got out to GPs to be careful. In most cases they know their patients and the personalities of their patients. We really need to see a collective careful thinking with these boxes and boxes of medication that are in people’s drawers and so on.

On the rent-a-room scheme, there are of course issues with it, but one of the unintended consequences was it was going to be considered income when it came to medical card eligibility. That is not what anybody wanted, but unfortunately there are always unintended consequences and this is just going to tidy up one such issue and that is very welcome. It is sensible and I encourage people out there who have a room and are living alone to consider renting the room out. It is not going to interfere with their social welfare, pension, medical card or any other State benefits they are getting. What is more, it will be nice income, great company and do us all a favour by assisting in finding homes for people who are struggling to get one at the moment. I put that call out and this legislation just underpins the nature of the scheme and what the Government is trying to achieve with the scheme.

It is very welcome we are now looking at increasing the role of pharmacists. I have been calling for that to happen for years and during the pandemic we saw great benefit in what they can do. They are doing vaccinations and all that type of work now. Any piece of legislation that enables us to increase the role of our community pharmacists is very welcome.

While I welcome all the primary care centres that are being opened around the country, the number of them that have pharmacies in them is a concern. Pharmacies on the main street have been providing care to patients for decades, but if a pharmacy suddenly opens in a primary care centre around the corner, what is going to happen? Half the business is going to go. While a one-stop shop principle is a good idea, it is not good if it displaces another business. An example where this could potentially happen is my town of Ennistymon, County Clare. We used to have three pharmacies and now we have two. They are two great pharmacies. They and their teams do great work. There is a primary care centre we hope to see open within the next two to three years. I believe it is going to be advertised towards the end of this year. My understanding is it could potentially include a pharmacy. If a pharmacy opens in the primary care centre in Ennistymon, it is going to close at least one of the other pharmacies in the town. The Minister has been in the town and he knows it and we do not want to see that happen. We need a commonsense approach to providing pharmaceutical and pharmacy services in primary care centres.

Overall, everybody will welcome what the Minister is trying to achieve in this legislation. I have no doubt it will receive unanimous support across the House. I hope we will see it pass in a short space of time and have it signed into law very quickly.