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urge the Minister to do the right thing and reverse that decision. Another issue I want to speak about is free contraception. The role of pharmacists in providing free contraception could be expanded. Great progress has been made in recent years and I hope this momentum continues … been making a compelling case for prescription-free contraceptives and pharmacies have been providing emergency contraception without prescription since 2011. There is no clinical reason for not extending this to oral contraception, as recommended by the World Health Organization. We should be making contraception more accessible, particularly

community pharmacy and provides for the participation of community pharmacy in new services, including bowel screening; immunisation programmes; common conditions service; oral contraception prescription continuation; national condom distribution service; medicines optimisation, commencing with point of care testing; and unused medicines return and disposal. I will speak about each … need from time to time. I very much hope it will be in place by the end of quarter 1 2026. On oral contraception prescription continuation, the continued supply of short-acting reversible contraception by community pharmacists is being progressed in parallel with the common conditions service. That

been utilised for a long period of time. The broadened scope of their functions now with regard to vaccination, the prescribing of contraception and the safe return of unused medicines is very much to be welcomed. It has been a particular bugbear of mine for a number … greater level of bowel screening and an increase in the age range of people undergoing screening. There is a real issue with free contraception. For most healthy women, having to return to their GP every six months is a cost they should not have to bear. The service

back to the Ireland of the Magdalen laundries, the mother and baby homes and the industrial schools. They want to make divorce and contraception illegal again. They want to abolish choice and bodily autonomy and force women back into the home. People have the right to spoil their

mentioned the expansion of the clinical role, which is a really positive move. Community pharmacists will be able to contribute more actively to contraception services, immunisation programmes and that bowl screening initiative I spoke about. They will also help with the safe return and disposal of unused medicine