Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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807. To ask the Minister for Health if she will initiate formal consultation on extending independent prescribing rights to physiotherapists with the appropriate postgraduate training; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56890/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Health is progressing with work to enable the health and social care workforce through the development of advanced skills, optimisation of skill mix, and scoping the introduction of new roles where appropriate. Developments in these areas support enhanced performance in our health service and support the health and social care workforce to work at the top of their expertise.

The Department of Health is currently developing the Policy on Advanced Practice in Health and Social Care Professions. Advanced Practice is an important tool for optimising the capacity of the existing health workforce, supporting of the development of career pathways and supporting workforce retention. €5.5 million in funding was allocated in Budget 2025 to support continued growth of Advanced Practice in nursing and midwifery and enable this to be rolled out for the first time for Health and Social Care Professionals.

In addition to this, the Department has taken key steps to enable physiotherapists working in relevant roles across the health service to refer patients for diagnostic investigations such as X-rays. Physiotherapists who have undertaken appropriate training, and who have entered the Radiological Diagnostic Procedures Division of the Register of Physiotherapists with CORU, are designated as referrers under S.I. No. 245 of 2025. 200 physiotherapists will have completed training in UCD by the end of 2025. This will result in fewer steps in the care of patients who require diagnostics.

There are no plans to initiate formal consultation on extending independent prescribing rights to physiotherapists at this time. The Irish Medicines Board Act, as amended, outlines which healthcare professionals can prescribe and enables the Minister to make regulations defining these conditions further.

In Ireland, doctors and dentists are independent prescribers and qualify as prescribers upon registration with their professional regulator.

Nurses and midwives can also be prescribers but do not automatically qualify as prescribers upon registration. The prescribing of medicinal products is an expanded role following successful completion of an approved education programme and registering with the NMBI as a registered nurse/midwife prescriber.

Pharmacists do not automatically qualify as prescribers upon registration. In 2024, the law was changed to allow pharmacists to prescribe certain medicinal product or class of medicinal products as may be used for the purpose of treating mild or moderate illnesses or ailments. Pharmacists must reach the required standard of education and training in relation to prescribing medicinal products in accordance with the rules of the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland. The Department of Health is currently working to put the key enablers in place to enable pharmacists to prescribe for the first time as part of the Common Conditions Service.

No other healthcare professional in Ireland is entitled to issue a prescription directly to a patient.