Have you paid a visit to your local pharmacy recently? If your answer is yes, you’re not alone. There are 1,912 community pharmacies in Ireland, according to the Department of Health, and visits to them are close to an all-time high. A recent study carried out on behalf of the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) found that 2.14m adults had visited a pharmacy in the previous week. That’s an incredible 111m visits every year.

Overall, around half of all adults visit a pharmacy at least once a week, with as many as one in five of us popping in to seek advice or check something with the pharmacy team.

Those figures are a testament to the trust Irish people place in their local pharmacy and the unique role community pharmacies play in towns and villages across Ireland.

For Caoimhe McAuley, director of pharmacy and superintendent pharmacist at Boots Ireland, the pharmacy’s role in their community was the very thing that inspired her choice of career.

Growing up in Cushendun, a small village on the Co Antrim coast, she saw firsthand the impact local pharmacies can have. “Within our local communities – our nearest pharmacists would have been in Cushendall and Ballycastle – the pharmacists were often the first point of contact for any kind of healthcare queries, rather than going to your GP.”

“When I think about the relationship my parents and I had with our pharmacist, it’s probably quite dissimilar to any other healthcare settings. Community pharmacists often care for the same patients and families for years, and they become a trusted and accessible source of advice. That was probably what attracted me to the role. That and the difference that the pharmacist could make in their local community.”

A career in pharmacy

Caoimhe made the move to Liverpool, England to study pharmacy and spent the early part of her career working as a hospital pharmacist in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. She loved the role but a move to a community pharmacy, where she felt she could make more of a difference, was calling her.

Around this time, she was approached by Boots to work as a pharmacist and she grabbed the opportunity. Caoimhe started her Boots career in a Dundalk store in Co Louth before progressing through different pharmacy leadership roles.

Keen to develop a more rounded knowledge of the business, she also held a number of retail roles at Boots, including managing one of the flagship stores, in Dublin’s Jervis Shopping Centre.

“I felt that if I was going to progress into a very senior role in pharmacy leadership, I needed to be able to demonstrate a breadth of knowledge across the entire business, not just pharmacy,” she says.

She did indeed move into a senior leadership position and her current role sees her work across a number of areas from governance and oversight of the practice of pharmacy in Boots to maintaining direct links to pharmacists.

What’s also really interesting is in a recent survey that the IPU carried out, 63% of patients now say they are more likely to speak to a pharmacist before visiting their GP

Earlier this year, she was elected president of the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU). having held the role of vice president for two years. It’s a thrilling time to be at the frontlines of the industry, she says.

“As the profession evolves, I’ll be looking at how I can shape that and how I can make sure that any changes that happen are the right things for community pharmacies, our patients, and our pharmacists. It’s such an exciting time to be president, and to be able to shape that change is an incredible opportunity.”

It’s a rapidly evolving industry and the Covid pandemic was a pivotal moment in pharmacy, Caoimhe says. “It fundamentally changed how we thought about the role of community pharmacist and how it can be expanded.”

It also changed consumer behaviour and people now take a more proactive approach to their health. “A lot of people come in when they think there might be a problem rather than just waiting to get the treatment. That’s been a big shift coming out of the pandemic.

“What’s also really interesting is in a recent survey that the IPU carried out, 63% of patients now say they are more likely to speak to a pharmacist before visiting their GP.

That number has increased year on year, which really reflects the growing trust that patients place on their pharmacists, and the element of convenience pharmacies offer.”

Developments in healthcare

The role of community pharmacies has expanded significantly over the years, Caoimhe says, noting that Government policy is now increasingly aligned with the profession’s ambition to see pharmacists’ expertise used to its full potential.

She points to the roll out of the Common Condition Service, which launched at the start of 2026. “That’s the first time that pharmacists can diagnose and, where appropriate, prescribe certain medicines for common conditions that we see every day in pharmacy.

“It makes inherent sense that pharmacists can now issue that prescription and for our GP colleagues, it’s freeing up time for them to see more complex cases.”

For Caoimhe, this is a significant step forward and a gateway to more improvements and services in local communities. With Irish consumers becoming increasingly interested in their own wellbeing and taking a more proactive approach to their health, there is huge potential for this important relationship to continue to grow.

“Fundamentally, at my heart, I see the value and untapped potential of pharmacy, and what it can do in our local communities,” says Caoimhe.

“I’m excited by how pharmacy is evolving, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of that because for me, community pharmacy is about being there for people at every stage of their life.

“It’s a privilege to be somebody that patients trust, whether they need advice, support with medication or reassurance. Knowing you can make a difference every day is what makes the profession so rewarding.”

Skin in the game

Oonagh O’Hagan, founder and managing director of Meaghers Pharmacy Group, explains how Irish pharmacies are meeting the needs of an increasingly educated beauty consumer.

“Pharmacists are the most trusted profession in Ireland; we’ve topped the Ipsos Veracity Index, an annual public trust index report, for number of years [obtaining a score of 96% in 2025].

“There’s a real trust there because we look after people when they’re at the most vulnerable. People really value the relationship, and it goes beyond prescriptions and medicines.

Skincare would be in our top three categories at Meaghers and we do a lot of dermal skincare, which is much more clinical and evidence-based. People are so much more educated on actives and ingredients now and they’ll tell us they’re looking for very specific ingredients like retinol, vitamin C or resveratrol.

The beauty of pharmacy is that we are ‘brand agnostic’, so when people come in, we can take them through options from different brands. Because we’re trained, we can explain how the products work, how to use them and if they have any unique selling points.

If it’s an Irish brand, we always would champion that. Irish brands like Skingredients, Pestle & Mortar, and Kinvara Skincare are really high-quality products that can compete on the global stage.

Years ago, you were loyal to your makeup or skincare brand. It’s not like that anymore. People might use a high-quality serum, but a more affordable cleanser or SPF and pharmacy is well placed to do a really good service around that. Our clients know that they can come in and get good advice and recommendations. Really, what the customer wants is for us to meet them where they’re at, so we put a big focus on that.

People can trivialise skincare and beauty, but it serves a huge purpose for our overall health and wellness. It’s a real self-care moment and it’s so important that we have those kind of moments.”

See boots.ie; and meagherspharmacy.ie