Court backs Irish ban on foreign pharmacists
An Irish government ban that prevents pharmacists who qualify in the UK, or elsewhere abroad, from owning or running a new pharmacy in the Irish Republic has been upheld by the European Court.
It dismissed an appeal by one of the republic’s largest pharmacy
chains, Sam McCauley Chemists, and found that the government was entitled
to maintain the restriction pending new legislation to remove it. Health
minister Mary Harney has drafted such a bill but it has yet to reach
parliament.
The restriction, known as the “three-year rule”, means that
Irish or foreign-born pharmacists who graduate abroad cannot open new
pharmacies or manage pharmacies that are less than three years old. The
company, which employs over 500 staff at 21 outlets, said the rule was
affecting business as well as discriminating against EU graduates and
Irish citizens who qualified in the UK.
Mr McCauley pointed out that a substantial number of the republic’s
pharmacists graduated in the UK because of a shortage of places in Irish
universities, and added: “The irony is that were it not for the
availability of these UK-trained Irish pharmacists, the sector would
have a major manpower crisis.”
It was Mr McCauley’s appointment of a Scottish-trained pharmacist
to manage a new Cork outlet that sparked the current controversy. When
the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland objected under the three-year rule,
he challenged the rule in the Irish High Court. After losing the case,
he appealed to the Irish Supreme Court, which referred the case for decision
to the European Court.
Mr McCauley said he was disappointed by the judgment but is considering
how he can continue the legal fight. A PSI spokesman agreed the situation
should be changed “but only when new legislation is introduced”. |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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