Vol. 521 No. 4
160 Mr. Higgins (Mayo) asked the Minister for Health and Children the reason persons who obtained their pharmacy qualifications in England are not permitted to open pharmacies here; and the steps, if any, or changes contemplated in order to allow them to do so. [17267/00]
EEC Council Directives 85/432/EEC, 85/433/EEC and 85/584/EEC deal with the mutual recognition of qualifications in pharmacy. Attempts were made by the European Commission on several occasions to introduce measures which would facilitate the free movement of pharmacists. However, restrictions in most member states on the freedom of pharmacists to open new pharmacies became a major stumbling block to the adoption of any Council directives which would provide for the free movement of pharmacists. Member states that had restrictions on the opening of new pharmacies were unwilling to remove them and other member states, including Ireland, were unwilling to support a measure which would impact unfairly on their own graduates. For example, while Irish graduates were restricted from opening pharmacies elsewhere, their peers from other member states were not restricted from opening pharmacies in Ireland and in other countries with no controls.
Eventually, a compromise proposal was worked out which provided for a derogation incorporated in Article 2.2 of Council Directive 85/433/EEC which was a derogation from the obligation to recognise EC qualifications in respect of "new pharmacies," in this case pharmacies which have been in operation for less than three years. Regulations were then made in this country to give statutory effect to the directives.
Issues arising from unrestricted pharmacy openings were later addressed in Ireland by the introduction of the Health (Community Pharmacy Contractor Agreement) Regulations, 1996. However, these regulations quickly became the subject of a judicial review and it was decided to defer any change to the regulations dealing with the mutual recognition of qualifications until all legal issues concerning the Health (Community Pharmacy Contractor Agreement) Regulations, 1996, were resolved.
My view is that the derogation in Article 2.2 of Council Directive 85/433/EEC is not a satisfactory solution in the longer term. The Deputy will appreciate, however, that it would be premature to amend the regulations providing for the mutual recognition of qualifications until all legal issues concerning the Health (Community Pharmacy Contractor Agreement) Regulations, 1996, have been resolved.
