There are at the present time two classes of pharmacists functioning in this country. The first is the pharmaceutical chemist whose position was regulated by an Act passed in 1875, under which he was empowered to keep open shop for the sale of poisons and to dispense the prescriptions of medical practitioners. The second is the registered druggist who is authorised to mix and sell poisons, but not to dispense medical prescriptions. The registered druggist was not provided for in the Act of 1875, but in an amending Act passed in 1890. The justification for the new grade was found in the shortage of pharmaceutical chemists which existed at that time in certain parts of the country. A serious flaw in the amending Act of 1890 was that the examination of druggists was defined in too much detail, and although it probably was satisfactory at that time it does not now meet requirements.
However, the main point is that there are no shortages of pharmaceutical chemists to-day, and the justification for the continuance of the separate and lesser grade of registered druggist lapses. A measure of reform was necessary, and I am in the happy position of having had the two bodies concerned in this matter approach me with an agreed solution of the difficulty. The bodies I refer to are the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, the statutory body controlling both chemists and druggists, and the Registered Druggists' Association, an organisation representative of druggists.
The agreement reached by those bodies is the basis of the Bill now before the House. It provides that registered druggists will stop taking apprentices and this means that, in time, the grade of registered druggist will disappear. The Bill enables existing registered druggists to sit for examinations to be held at intervals during the next three years to secure qualification as "dispensing chemists and druggists." Those who qualify as dispensing chemists and druggists will be permitted to compound medical prescriptions and, generally speaking, to carry on business in the same way as a pharmaceutical chemist. No additions to the ranks of dispensing chemists and druggists will be made after the three-year period I mentioned and, in time, this class also will disappear. Provision is included in the Bill for the protection of the title of "dispensing chemist and druggist" and generally for the application to the new grade of the provision of the Pharmacy Acts.
We have been careful in the Bill to preserve the rights of existing persons. The registered druggists who fail the examination or who do not sit for it will be allowed to carry on as at present. While no new apprentices will be taken by registered druggists, those persons who started their service before the Bill was introduced in the Dáil will be permitted to proceed to the examination for registered druggist in the usual manner. As a concession, the pharmaceutical Society intend to amend their regulations to provide that these apprentices will be permitted to transfer to become apprentices to pharmaceutical chemists without doing the preliminary examination for such apprenticeship which is usually required.
The pharmaceutical society are at present working out a scheme under which the training of pharmaceutical chemists would be improved, with better provision for theoretical instruction, together with graded examinations which will replace the present single qualifying test. This new scheme of training will not be brought in under this Bill but under regulations made by the pharmaceutical society with the consent of the Minister. This new scheme, together with the reform effected by the present Bill, should result in the future standard of those qualifying in pharmacy being raised considerably. I recommend the Bill to the Seanad.