The Registrar’s report, delivered by Joanne Kissane, covered a lot of ground but Ms Kissane began with an outline of the rationale for, and detail of, the revised draft PSI Guidelines on Record Keeping in a Retail Pharmacy Business, due to go for public consultation. The Registrar noted that the Community Pharmacy Agreement 2025 had identified reducing the administrative burden in community pharmacies, and supporting more patient-facing capacity, as two of its key priority actions, and there was a key recommendation to facilitate pharmacists keeping pharmacy records electronically.
“You will be aware that PSI have been very supportive of transitioning paper records into digital records,” Ms Kissane noted, adding that this issue had been highlighted for a number of years by the PSI across various different workstreams, such as the Workforce Intelligence Report. The Department of Health has established a record-keeping implementation group to address these commitments made under the Community Pharmacy Agreement, she noted. The ultimate goal is to progress legislative change to modernise prescription management, supporting the adoption of electronic record-keeping practices and allowing pharmacies to retain the option to continue using existing paper-based record-keeping options; Ms Kissane acknowledged many of these developments are some years away.
The PSI’s role to date has been providing input on a proof-of-concept exercise facilitated by the IPU in January 2026, as well as taking the lead on the development of regulatory guidelines and support, and providing feedback on draft legislation being developed by the Department of Health. The Registrar told the meeting that draft legislation will be finalised by the end of the month (March) but the final draft guidelines will be issued for a four-week public consultation period in June, as well as an in-person session with the PSI’s pharmacist panel to get their feedback on draft guidelines. A report based on this feedback will then be presented to Council at its June meeting. Ms Kissane spoke of the importance of “bringing people along on this journey” and noted it represented “an interim solution” as they work towards an eventual fully integrated system of e-prescribing and digitisation in pharmacies. “The principles-based guidelines are intended to be supportive, enabling, and explain and facilitate compliance with the legislative requirements for record-keeping,” she said. The development of an IT requirements document will then follow.
Ms Kissane also offered some details on the form of the Advance Reform of the Pharmacy Act fitness to practice process and noted that the Department of Health has asked the PSI to submit a paper of detailed proposed amendments to the Pharmacy Act for the FtP process by the end of Q1 2026. Some of the proposed technical administrative amendments included extending the term of office of the President and Vice President and also a change of name for the PSI, to “Pharmacy Regulator/Council”, meaning pharmacists would no longer be known as “members of the Society” but simply registrants. The title of Registrar would also be changed to Chief Executive Officer, in alignment with other healthcare professional regulators. This would help clarify the role of the regulator and make them “more visible to the public”, Ms Kissane noted.
This was discussed in detail later in the meeting. An update on the 2026 Service Plan showed all projects are tracking and progressing as expected.
Highlights of the PSI’s Annual Report for 2025 were also covered and these included the expansion of pharmacy services, the accreditation of the new pharmacy degree programmes, and the work on pricing transparency in pharmacies.
Emily Kelly then delivered the report from the Audit and Risk committee, incorporating its recommendations regarding approval of the year end 2025 Financial Statements, the External Audit Report, the Statement of Internal Control, the Report of the Audit and Risk Committee, and the Risk Report. A discussion ensued about the ringfenced pension scheme the PSI is a member of. Requests for approval from Council of the PSI 2025 Annual Report incorporating the year-end Financial Statements and also for the Letter of Representation to the External Auditor, for signature on behalf of the PSI Council, were granted.
The report to Council from the Regulatory and Professional Policy Committee was then delivered by Richard Hammond, who also sought approval of the RPP Committee Work Plan for 2026, which was granted.
A request for approval of the consultation report on the draft Safe Staffing Guidelines and the draft PSI guidelines themselves was then made.
Pharmacist member Nigel Moloney asked if there was a possibility of consolidating the Safe Staffing guidelines and the PSI Pharmacy Assessment System; Richard Hammond replied that this would not be an option as this is simply guidance and not mandated. Pharmacist member Margaret Donnelly spoke of her belief that this is “. . . a great document, and not a stick to beat pharmacists with”. However, she pointed out that it is overly focused on dispensing, with no mention of OTC products, expanding services or even vaccines; “You might do 200 items over the day but do 1,000 flu vaccines over the winter months.” Ms Kissane noted that while there are references to the services provided, perhaps these could be included in the checklist.
The implementation of agreed pharmacy policy changes with the Department of Health was discussed and a request for approval of the revised draft PSI Guidelines on Record Keeping in a Retail Pharmacy Business for public consultation was then granted.
A request for approval of the draft policy proposals for reform of the Fitness to Practise process for submission to the Department of Health was discussed at length. The paper, noted Richard Hammond, has already been approved by the RPP committee so it can be submitted to the Department as a discussion document. Ms Kissane explained that, ultimately, rather than going straight to FtP proceedings, the goal is that complaints would be dealt with by the PPC committee who will have more authority and will be able to apply sanctions. Complaints will be investigated by authorised officers. The issue that all complaints will be triaged first by the Chief Executive/Registrar was raised by a number of members, who noted there may well be a conflict of interest in these instances where the Chief Executive may decide which are vexatious/malisious. Mr Hammond noted that the Chief Executive retains the right to delegate where appropriate. Ms Kissane said the PSI is outlining a principles-based approach today, and expects to have numerous conversations about how this will ultimately be embedded across the organisation. While it is about “streamlining and bringing efficiencies”, the Council is the governance body of the PSI “and that will always be the case”, and will retain full oversight, Ms Kissane said, adding that the most serious complaints will still be for an inquiry.
Mr Hammond added, however, that there would be no clause that would allow a complainant to take their case to Council if they have a negative outcome from the committee; “The point is to take Council out of it, lots of other regulatory bodies have grappled with it and the goal is to avoid needless duplication”. Ann McGarry noted that the governance arrangements for oversight of this new system are “very clear”; this is important, given that these proceedings are moving farther away from Council. The PSI’s Cora Nestor noted that this represents phase one, which brings the PSI in line with other regulators — more “specific and unique scenarios” will be covered in phase two. The concomitant proposal to extend the terms of the President and Vice-President to two years, instead of one year, was also welcomed by Council members. While some expressed support for the use of mediation as a tool, Mr Hammond said he was “sceptical” about its value. There was also concern expressed that while the PSI could retain its legal team for proceedings, this would constitute an imbalance of power compared with the defendant. President O’Driscoll noted that a number of good suggestions had been made, and Council was happy to take note of these and tweak the document as appropriate. The request for approval was granted.
In relation to Irish Institute of Pharmacy (IIOP) updates, the draft workplan for 2026 was outlined, followed by a request for approval of the CPD Review Policy for pharmacists and quality Assurance of CPD Activities Policy. Pharmacist member Maragaret Donnelly noted that pharmacists are “about to see a very significant change in how we do CPD and are we confident that IIOP are sufficiently resourced and staffed to help bring about this change?” Ms Kissane said the IIOP has been granted a short extension of its current contract and is in the process of negotiating the next extension of its contract, where these issues will be explored. The PSI, taking a risk-based approach, will request for a percentage of the CPD portfolios to be manually reviewed.
In relation to the ePortfolio Review Exemption Policy, Mr Hammond noted that as the CPD regime has been “recast” from a five-year cycle to annual cycle, akin to most other professions, the exemption policy needs to be updated in line with this move to annualisation. This involves some “minor modernisation tweaks” — these were also approved by Council. Margaret Donnelly spoke of the need to ensure periods of leave such as maternity leave but also paternal and parental leave were covered by the exemption policy.
The report to Council from the Performance and Resources Committee was delivered by Ann McGarry, and Council granted approval of the Performance and Resources Committee Workplan for 2026, which Ms McGarry noted would “allow for more in-depth discussion of issues”. Other items in relation to the procurement policy and corporate procurement plan for 2025-2028 were also approved. The investment strategy was discussed, and it was noted the PSI has retained Davy to offer advice on how best to get return on investment, while maintaining a very conservative approach. This was also approved by consensus.
The final discussion involved the allocation of funds to the Practitioner Health Programme, which Ms McGarry noted is a very important programme for pharmacists. This sparked some discussion with many members highlighting the general lack of awareness and thus access to the benefits of the programme — it was noted that just 52 pharmacists have benefited in the past five years. Pharmacists have agreed to an increase in their fees but may not wish to see that money “given away” when it could be spent elsewhere. PSI Vice-President Laura Sahm said they need to communicate that fees are increasing for a reason, but the PSI also wishes to support colleagues in need.
President O’Driscoll concluded the meeting with his report to Council from the Special Purposes Committee, seeking request for approval of appointments to disciplinary committees and the appointment of a Chair to the PPC and appointment of a lay member to the PPC. The next public PSI Council meeting will take place on 25 June 2026.
Danielle Barron
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