One of the biggest Irish pharmaceutical chains accused the Government of illegally restricting the employment rights of foreign educated graduates at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) yesterday.
Sam McCauley Chemists, which employs more than 450 staff at 15 shops around the State, argued in court that the State breached an 1985 EU directive that provides for the mutual recognition of pharmacy diplomas and qualifications across all EU states.
The company's case alleges that the Government broke European regulations when it applied for a temporary derogation to the directive, which has become known as the "three year rule", in 1991.
This regulation prohibits a pharmacist who was not educated in Ireland from opening or managing a chemist's shop in the Republic that has been established for less than three years. It applies to Irish citizens educated abroad as well as to foreign-born chemists educated in other EU member states and has been criticised by pharmacy chains for provoking a shortage of chemists in Ireland.
Sam McCauley, owner of Sam McCauley Chemists, told The Irish Times yesterday that the three-year rule was "discriminatory, anti-competitive and ultimately farcical".
He said for the last 10-15 years there had not been enough pharmacy places provided by Irish universities to meet the demand for new chemist shops in the Republic. Two-thirds of new pharmacists joining the register are Irish students graduating from British universities who are not able to run a newly established pharmacy, he added.
"This has led to situations where you could have an octogenarian pharmacist sitting in a shop reading the newspaper while a foreign qualified person does the real work, to comply with rules," he said.
The current case being heard by the ECJ involves a Scottish chemist Mark Sadja who qualified in Britain as a chemist and was appointed by Sam McCauley Chemists to run one of its new outlets in Cork. The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, the regulatory body in the Republic, subsequently took a case against Sam McCauley Chemists over the appointment, and in 2002 the High Court ruled in the society's favour.
Sam McCauley Chemists appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court, which last year referred the case to the ECJ to decide if the three-year rule breached EU rules.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland is a notice party in the ECJ case, which occurs at a sensitive time in Europe on the issue of allowing freedom of movement of workers and firms in the EU. For example, next week EU leaders will debate the services directive at a summit in Brussels. This directive would abolish a myriad of restrictions and red tape on service providers from one EU state setting up shop in another EU state. Ireland is a strong supporter of the directive while other states such as France are more sceptical.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said yesterday that on foot of a Government decision of June 2005, the Government was at an advanced stage of preparing a Pharmacy Bill that would address, among other issues, the three-year rule.
The Tánaiste, Mary Harney, has already indicated that she wants to abolish the three-year rule in the proposed Pharmacy Bill. However, is understood that the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland is pressing for the introduction of tough new "fitness to practise" rules to enable it to regulate chemists educated abroad.
