The dispute that has led to over 140 pharmacists withdrawing from the methadone treatment scheme could have been averted, the Labour Party claimed today.
Around 3,000 former heroin addicts have been affected by members of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) withdrawing from the scheme in a row over profit margins.
The IPU said the Health Service Executive (HSE) is cutting margins for its members without consulting with them.
But the HSE maintains that have been advised that it would be anti-competitive to negotiate fees with the IPU because the body represents commercial interests.
Labour Party president Michael D Higgins said he published a bill last year proposing that the IPU be exempt from the Competitions Act 2002 but could not attract Government support.
"I do not accept that when the members of the Oireachtas passed the Competition Acts that they wanted to create a situation where self employed individuals such as pharmacists could not be represented by their representative body.
"This issue was supposed to have been addressed in the last round of partnership talks, but this was never done," Mr Higgins said.
The IPU say the cut in the margins paid to wholesalers from 17.6 per cent this year to 7 per cent over the next two years would mean treatments given to medical card holders would be sold at a loss.
The new arrangements begin to come into effect from December 1 st.
But the HSE said it had been assured when it renegotiated margins with wholesalers that pharmacists would not lose out.
It said in a statement issued this afternoon: "No retail pharmacist will be out of pocket following the reforms."
President of the IPU Michael Guckian said members were already concerned about the HSE's failure to support security measures for pharmacists operating the methadone scheme.
"The HSE has failed to provide participating pharmacies with the type of support that is required to enable a scheme like this to function effectively and safely.
"The recent move by the HSE to unilaterally breach the financial basis of its contract with pharmacists is the straw that has broken the camel's back," Mr Guckian said.
He called on the National Implementation Board to intervene and said pharmacists would end the protest once a means of negotiation had been found.
Rose Hattaway of the HSE's corporate pharmaceutical unit said the pharmacists were being "cynical and manipulative".
"It is totally unjustifiable that some health professionals would seek to threaten the well-being of vulnerable groups such as methadone patients," Ms Hattaway said.
Sinn Féin's Aongus Ó Snodaigh said Minister for Health Mary Harney was shirking her responsibilities.
Labour Party health spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan said both parties need to enter talks and resolve the situation quickly. She said the HSE had not consulted with pharmacists and were trying to "barge through a change without discussing the consequences".
Dr James Reilly, Fine Gael health spokesman, said the Minister's inaction had contributed to the dispute.
"The Minister's hands-off approach to the health services is fast approaching negligence. In the same way as we saw with the ban on recruitment, she is allowing the HSE to unilaterally impose sanctions on frontline health services," Dr Reilly said.