Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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1721. To ask the Minister for Health if he will outline the FEMPI changes, which were introduced affecting the income of pharmacists; if there is a process in place for considering the restoration of such changes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2371/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) legislation, payments to pharmacy contractors were restructured in 2009, 2011 and 2013, under:

- S.I. No. 246/2009 - Health Professionals (Reduction of Payments to Community Pharmacy Contractors) Regulations 2009;

- S.I. No. 300/2011 - Health Professionals (Reduction of Payments to Community Pharmacy Contractors) Regulations 2011; and

- S.I. No. 279/2013 - Health Professionals (Reduction of Payments to Community Pharmacy Contractors) Regulations 2013.

Among other things, dispensing fees moved from a mixture of professional fees and retail mark-ups to an increased standard fee which was reduced on a sliding scale based on the number of items dispensed in a month, as follows:

- €5.00 for the first 1,667 items each month;

- €4.50 for the next 833 items; and

- €3.50 for any remaining items.

The regulations governing the pharmacy fee structure that were made under section 9 of the FEMPI Act 2009 expired at the end of 2019.

Under the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017, these regulations had to be replaced by 1 January 2020 in order to maintain a statutory basis for contractor payments and to prescribe the fees payable from that date.

The Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017 (Payments to Community Pharmacy Contractors) Regulations 2019 – S.I. No. 639 of 2019 – gave effect to the current pharmacy fees.

Any future changes to the pharmacy fee structure will need to be made by regulations under the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017.

As Minister for Health, I recognise the significant role community pharmacists play in the delivery of patient care and acknowledge the potential for this role to be developed further in the context of health service reform. Their participation in national COVID-19 vaccination rollout – the largest ever undertaken by the State – and in the recently launched free contraception scheme are examples of the importance of their role in the functioning of our health service.

During the COVID-19 pandemic the Health Service Executive established a Community Pharmacy Contingency Planning working group with relevant stakeholders, including the Irish Pharmaceutical Union and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, to support the implementation of all COVID-19 support measures.

This group – now called the Community Pharmacy Planning Forum – had examined the operational and clinical challenges confronting community pharmacists during the COVID-19 emergency and played a key role in resolving them to the benefit of the people of Ireland.

The work of the Forum has now transitioned to discussing the strategic direction of the community pharmacy profession. This will prove invaluable in the context of future contractual reform. Of course, any publicly funded pharmacy service expansion should address unmet public healthcare needs, improve access to existing public health services, and provide better value for money.