In September 2025 I published the new landmark Community Pharmacy Agreement (CPA) with the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) which is supported by a €75m million new investment across 2025 and 2026. It will support the delivery of safe and efficient patient care, and will ensure that community pharmacists are better equipped to contribute to national health priorities through structured engagement, sustainable funding, and integrated service delivery. I am very pleased that in order to support medicines optimisation for all patients as part of the CPA, a dedicated annual funding allowance of €4,500,000 will be made available from 2026.
There are many ways to support medicines optimisation to minimise risk to older patients from possible suboptimal medication management as well as the potential unnecessary expenditure on medications. The annual funding will allow for the development of new approaches within community pharmacy in a structured and evidence-based manner, while creating a framework for ongoing collaboration between my Department, the HSE, the IPU, and other stakeholders, who are all involved in the delivery of safe medicines care to patients.
Additionally, the HSE have included a Key Performance Indicator in relation to polypharmacy in its 2026 National Service Plan. An approach to improve identified issues is to be designed in 2026 for implementation in 2027.
