Irish pharmacists who trained abroad will be able to run pharmacies in the Republic following the decision by Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney to lift restrictions.
Currently foreign-trained pharmacists, including many Irish who left to study abroad because of the shortage of university places, can work in Ireland, but they cannot be the supervising pharmacists in newly-opened shops.
Under the changes, pharmacists will be properly inspected, registered and disciplined for the first time by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland once new fitness to practise rules are put in place, though this could be a further year away. Currently, the society has few, if any, powers to discipline errant members, limited powers to inspect chemist shops and none to monitor the ownership of shops. Neither can it expel people from the society
However, the changes announced by Ms Harney, which have been the subject of major lobbying by pharmacists, will do little to boost competition in the sector, one of the most expensive in Europe. In particular, she has refused to accept one of the key recommendations of the Pharmacy Review Group, which proposed that no chemist chain should own more than 8 per cent of the shops in any health board area.
All new pharmacists, whether Irish, or not, will have to pass linguistic and "forensic competence" tests, the Department of Health said last night. The ending of the restrictions on foreign-trained pharmacists had been "particularly unfair on Irish people who were forced to study pharmacy abroad in the past", said Ms Harney.
"These reforming measures will be good for consumers. They will allow for more pharmacists to practise in the country and will raise the standards of pharmacy services.
"The changes meet the requests from the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland to provide them with enhanced powers to enable them to carry out their role of ensuring quality standards and improving consumer protection," she added.
Expressing "deep disappointment", the Irish Pharmaceutical Union said Ms Harney's failure to regulate the ownership of Irish chemist shops would hasten the end of local shops. "The reality is that the only people who will benefit are big business who the Government seems determined to facilitate in buying up the sector," said Karl Hilton, president of the Pharmaceutical Union of Ireland.
"A pharmacist in Newry, or anyone else from Newry, can come down here and open up a shop, or a chain of shops tomorrow morning, but a pharmacist from the Republic cannot go the other way," said general secretary of the IPU Séamus Feely last night.
