Brian Walsh (Galway West, Independent)
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468. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to introduce guidelines for pharmacies to accept returns of unwanted or unused medicines, in order to ensure their safe disposal and to promote this practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26285/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Regulation of Retail Pharmacy Businesses Regulations 2008 set out the standards applicable to the operation of community pharmacies. Under these Regulations, persons operating registered pharmacies may accept patient-returned medicines for disposal. Pharmacy owners are required to ensure that when disposing of medicines, they must do so in a manner that will not result in a danger to public health or a risk to the environment.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, the statutory regulator for pharmacists and pharmacies in Ireland, issued guidelines on the disposal of medicinal products for a retail pharmacy business to facilitate compliance with the Regulations. These guidelines set out how patient-returned medicines are to be managed by pharmacies to ensure that returned medicines are segregated from pharmacy stock whilst waiting for disposal, never re-used or supplied to another patient, and are disposed of in an appropriate timeframe.The guidelines state that‘Patients should be facilitated and encouraged to return unwanted or expired medicinal products to the pharmacy for disposal. Pharmacists should inform patients that it is not appropriate to dispose of waste medicinal products in their household waste or through the mains water drainage system.’