Léim ar aghaidh chuig an bpríomhábhar
Gnáthamharc

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 5 Apr 1962

Vol. 194 No. 9

Supplementary Estimate, 1962-63. - Pharmacy Bill, 1961—Report and Final Stages.

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 6, line 3, after "Minister" insert:

", and fees of different amounts may be determined in respect of the retention on registers maintained by the Society of persons referred to in subsection (3) of this section who keep open shop for the dispensing or compounding of medical prescriptions or the sale of poisons or are employed in a shop so kept and of such retention of persons referred to in the said subsection (3) other than those aforesaid."

This is the amendment which I undertook to put down in order to go some way to meet the point of view expressed by Deputy O'Higgins.

This is the amendment to provide for a different registration fee?

Yes. It meets partially Deputy O'Higgins' point of view.

Amendment agreed to.

I move amendment No. 2:—

In page 6, between lines 9 and 10, but in section 6, to insert the following subsection:

"( ) References in section 2 and subsection (5) of section 3 of this Act and in section 14 of the Poisons Act, 1961, and the regulations under the said section 14 to any of the following persons, namely, a registered pharmaceutical chemist, a registered dispensing chemist and druggist and a registered druggist, shall be deemed not to include references to any such person in respect of whom a fee payable pursuant to subsection (3) of this section is due and unpaid."

This is consequential on amendment No. 1.

Amendment agreed to.
Bill, as amended, received for final consideration.
Question proposed: "That the Bill do now pass."

This Pharmacy Bill relates to pharmaceutical chemists generally. On a previous Bill, I directed the attention of the Minister to the fact that there was a great variety of veterinary preparations which were sold in chemists' shops and that there were various interlocking arrangements restricting access to these commodities to certain pharmaceutical chemists who would conform with requirements made by the manufacturing chemists. While I was prepared to concede that certain drugs should be restricted to prescription when intended for human use, I held that to extend that to all veterinary preparations was quite improper. An attempt is being made in certain parts of the country to withhold from the agricultural community certain drugs on the ground that the manufacturers had imposed conditions on the chemists that they should sell them only on the prescription of a veterinary surgeon. That is a restriction on trade. I should like to be assured that that kind of procedure will not be tolerated if this House accedes to the request of the pharmaceutical trade for the protection which it is sought to give them in this Bill and in previous legislation.

The Leader of the Opposition, as far as I can grasp his point, wishes me to give an undertaking on behalf of those who keep an open shop for the dispensing of medical prescriptions and the sale of poisons. I cannot give it on this Bill and I could not give it on behalf of the Society. The Bill deals with quite a different matter from that which the Deputy raised on the Poisons Bill last year and in fact nothing has happened in consequence of that Bill which would give any person the right to change what was hitherto the custom of the trade, because no regulations have so far been made under the Poisons Act.

It is well these warning words were sounded.

Question put and agreed to.
Barr
Roinn