PSI annual report covers fees, training and inspections
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland has published its latest annual report, covering a year of activity that included fee increases, inspection work, and updates to training and degree programmes. The report gives a rare public window into how the Republic of Ireland's pharmacy regulator operates day to day.
What happened
The PSI released its annual review in June 2026, setting out its regulatory activity across several areas: risk-based pharmacy inspections, changes to pharmacist training requirements, degree-level education standards, and a significant rise in registration fees, which the organisation said was necessary to ensure its financial viability.
The fee increase was among the more prominent disclosures in the report. The PSI framed it as a structural necessity rather than a short-term adjustment, signalling that the higher rates are likely to remain the baseline going forward.
Inspection activity formed another major strand of the report. The PSI uses a risk-based model to decide which pharmacies get inspected and when, prioritising those where potential patient safety concerns are highest. The annual review detailed the volume and scope of that work over the past year.
Training and education also featured heavily. The report included updates on how the PSI is shaping both pre-registration training pathways and undergraduate pharmacy degrees in Ireland, reflecting the regulator's broader remit beyond just registration and inspection.
Why it matters
For anyone working in or moving between UK and Irish pharmacy, the PSI's annual report is a useful reference point. The two jurisdictions share a lot — similar clinical frameworks, overlapping drug supply chains, mutual recognition arrangements for some qualifications — but their regulatory structures differ in ways that matter professionally.
The fee increase is the kind of change that directly affects anyone holding or applying for PSI registration. If you're a UK-trained pharmacist who has considered working in Ireland, or a trainee with dual-jurisdiction ambitions, rising registration costs are a practical factor worth knowing about early.
The inspection model the PSI describes also offers a point of comparison with GPhC inspection practice in England, Scotland, and Wales. Both regulators use risk-based frameworks, but the PSI's annual transparency about its inspection volume and methodology makes it easier to track how that model evolves year on year. Understanding how pharmacy regulation works across different jurisdictions strengthens your broader professional literacy — something that matters beyond the exam room.
The training and degree content in the report is directly relevant to anyone currently in or recently through an Irish pharmacy programme, and also to UK educators and employers who recruit from Irish schools of pharmacy.
GPhC exam relevance
The PSI is not a GPhC body, and its regulatory decisions don't appear directly in the Common Registration Assessment. However, the inspection and registration principles the PSI describes sit within the same international pharmacy regulatory tradition that the GPhC draws from.
More practically, exam questions on pharmacy law and regulation in the UK sometimes require candidates to understand the boundaries of the GPhC's jurisdiction — and knowing that a separate regulator covers Ireland is part of that picture. It also reinforces an understanding of how risk-based regulation works as a concept: identifying higher-risk settings, allocating inspection resource accordingly, and publishing outcomes transparently.
If you're sitting the CRA in the near future, don't treat this story as a revision priority. But if you're building background knowledge about pharmacy regulation as a system, the PSI's approach is worth a look.
What's next
The PSI's fee changes are already in effect, so anyone with current or pending Irish registration needs to account for the new rates now. If you're planning to apply for PSI registration alongside your GPhC registration, factor the higher fees into your timeline and budget.
It's also worth watching how Irish training standards develop over the next year. The PSI has signalled active work on degree and pre-registration frameworks, and any changes there may eventually influence mutual recognition discussions between the UK and Ireland — particularly post-Brexit, where the portability of pharmacy qualifications between the two countries has become less automatic.
The full report is available via the PSI directly for anyone who wants the complete detail on inspection data and training policy.
Source: Chemist+Druggist — https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/news/psi-annual-review-fees-training-degrees-and-inspections-GSPW2NSVRVBSBE3GAMBQUGQFQ4/