Regulatory and Professional Policy Committee

Purpose of the Committee

The Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) has established a Regulatory and Professional Policy Committee as an Advisory Committee of the Council. This Committee is established under the Pharmacy Act 2007 and under the PSI (Council) Rules of 2008 and 2015.
The primary purpose of the Committee is to advise the Council in relation to its regulatory and professional policy functions. “Regulatory” here refers to the Council’s functions across the following domains:

• Education,
• Qualification recognition,
• Registration (both pharmacists and pharmacies),
• Pharmacy compliance and quality assessment,
• Continuing professional development,
• Pharmacy workforce,
• Safe expansion of scope of pharmacy practice.

Membership and Appointment

The members of the Committee are appointed by the Council, following nomination by the Special Purposes Committee.

When appointing members, the Council will consider the following competency areas and the responsibilities of the Committee so that the Committee collectively possesses an appropriate range of skills and knowledge to perform its functions to the required standard.

• Experience in professional/healthcare/service regulation
• Experience in professional practice development within the health sector
• Experience in professional education, accreditation and learning
• Experience in developing and using outcome-based standards to assess quality in healthcare services,
• Experience in patient/service user advocacy.

The Committee will consist of a maximum of ten members, ordinarily eight being members of Council, which includes:

• A Chairperson
• A minimum of two members who are registered pharmacists
• A minimum of two members who are not registered pharmacists

If essential skills are not available within the Council membership, it is open to the Council to nominate external members, up to a maximum of two members, to the Committee.

The Chairperson will be nominated by the President, after consultation with the Special Purposes Committee, and approved by Council. Committee Members will hold membership for up to two years and will be eligible for reappointment. No member will ordinarily serve more than two consecutive terms.

Reporting and Review

The Committee will formally report in writing to the Council through a report from the Committee, to be presented by the Chair of the Committee at each public meeting of the Council.

The Committee will also annually review its own effectiveness (including these Terms of Reference) and report on the results of that review to the Council.

Advisory Responsibilities

The Committee will advise the Council in relation to its policy objectives as set out in the Corporate Strategy, and on related developments pertaining to the PSI’s regulatory functions. This may include:

• Assessing the effectiveness of the PSI’s regulatory regime across all its domains of regulation,
• Advising on developments in the regulatory regime,
• Recommending legislative reform to ensure future effectiveness across PSI’s functions,
• Providing input on pharmacy practice developments to enhance patient care, quality health outcomes and safety,
• Identify opportunities where PSI can contribute to strategic developments within healthcare in Ireland,

Other Responsibilities

In addition to its advisory responsibilities, the Committee is also responsible for:

• Developing an annual workplan for presentation to the Council.
• Any delegations not made to the Registrar that fall within the advisory responsibilities of the Committee
• Making recommendations for the establishment of specific working groups to act on decisions of Council, in alignment with its Corporate Strategy, including:
  • Approval of their terms of reference,
  • Selecting membership from within and outside Council,
  • Setting timeframes and actions to be achieved.
• Overseeing any working group(s) established under the auspices of the Committee and reporting on its work to the Council.

Meetings and Support

Meetings of the Committee shall function as follows:

• The Committee will meet at least four times a year.
• The quorum for a meeting of the Committee shall be 50% of the total number of members of the Committee plus one. If the number of members is odd, the quorum will be 50% of the total number of members of the Committee, rounded up to the nearest whole number. For example, in a Committee of seven members, the quorum would be four.
• The Committee Chair will ordinarily chair the Committee meeting.
• The Registrar will normally attend meetings of the Committee and will arrange for the Committee to be supported by PSI staff.
• To support accurate record-keeping and the preparation of meeting minutes, PSI staff will use the Microsoft Teams Transcript function to generate a transcript of all Regulatory & Professional Policy Committee meetings, whether held in person, hybrid, or fully online via Microsoft Teams. Committee members will be informed at the start of each meeting that transcription is enabled. The transcript will be treated as a confidential record and managed and securely deleted in accordance with PSI’s data protection, governance and retention policies. The use of transcription or recording technologies during a closed session of the Committee is strictly prohibited.

Version 5, September 2025