Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In fact, €98 million of new money has been provided since this Government came in for new medicines. I refer to 148 new medicines in the past three years, as well as 39 new drugs or new uses of existing drugs with an orphan designation. By orphan, we mean drugs for rare diseases and they are termed orphan drugs because of that. We spend €3 billion a year on medicines. That is not inconsiderable and we are not the laggard across Europe. I do not accept that at all. In fact, we would be a laggard in the use of generic drugs relative to others across Europe.

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