Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 165: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if it is proposed that Irish pharmacists are afforded the same rights of establishment in other EU countries as pharmacists from other jurisdiction have here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15546/07]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Many EU States continue to operate some form of restriction on entry to the pharmacy profession, and under EU Directive 85/433/EEC they are within their rights to do so. The initiative for the removal of these restrictions rests with the EU Commission and I would support any moves which the Commission may make in this regard.

With respect to Ireland, the Pharmacy Act 2007 will remove the restriction on pharmacists educated in other EU or EEA countries from owning, managing or supervising a pharmacy in Ireland that is less than three years old — the derogation under Article 2.2 of Council Directive 85/433/EEC. My motivation in removing this "derogation" was to facilitate the many Irish pharmacy graduates who, because of the shortage of pharmacy undergraduate places available in the State, went abroad to train. On their return these graduates found that they were at a disadvantage to their Irish trained colleagues in not being able to establish a new pharmacy business, having instead to confine themselves to ones which had already been in operation for at least 3 years, a situation that was clearly unfair and unsustainable.