Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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1906.To ask the Minister for Health when a chief pharmacist will be appointed in his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[35774/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I am committed to the expansion of the role of pharmacy in Ireland. In July 2023, I established the Expert Taskforce to Support the Expansion of the Role of Pharmacy to examine how pharmacists can be enabled to expand their scope of practice for the benefit of patients and the wider health service.

On August 13, 2024, I published the final report of the Expert Taskforce. The Taskforce made three overarching recommendations:

1. That pharmacists be enabled to exercise independent, autonomous prescriptive authority within and related to the individual practitioner’s scope of practice and competence.
2. This should be implemented in a stepwise manner, commencing with the introduction of a common conditions service, with pharmacists provided with prescriptive authority linked to the service and its parameters.
3. The development, over the coming years, of models of pharmacist prescribing within primary and secondary care settings, recognising the requirements for specific enablers.

In relation to the Taskforce's package of recommendations for the development of models of pharmacist prescribing across the health service - in other countries, this has involved pharmacists prescribing for more complex conditions in specific settings. In parallel to progressing the common conditions service, I have asked my officials to examine these wider recommendations, which includes the concept of a chief pharmacist, and consider how best to apply these models in an Irish context and the enablers that will be required to design, plan and deliver these. My Department will consider these further over the coming months and engage with stakeholders through established structures.