Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My questions are for the IMO, Barnardos and the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. What are the cost implications of the referendum being passed with regard to agencies with a child focus?

I was in Kinsale earlier this year at the launch of a community-based programme to deal with dementia in the community. What are the views of Mr. O'Connell on this cost saving measure, which is keeping people in the community longer, and on the other approaches we can take?

Following on from Deputy Stanley's question to Professor Tierney, someone came into my advice centre some weeks ago very distressed that medication that had been prescribed was no longer on the prescription list. I thought it was unusual. Within a week, a similar concern was expressed by a constituent, saying that something that had been prescribed every week was no longer available on the prescription list. I examined it and I found out that one of the items prescribed cost €27 a month. It was a sulphate food supplement costing €28 and, in the case of the other man, omega 3 oil at €30 per bottle. It was not medication but a food supplement, which is available from Lidl or Aldi for as little as €2 a bottle but doctors are prescribing it as a food supplement. There was a certain level of brand identification going on in light of the difference between €1.80 and €28. The construction of what is in the two bottles, with a difference of €27, is exactly the same. Can Professor Tierney defend the practice? The doctor could have told the person to go to the supermarket and buy it for €2 without prescribing it for €28 when patients are being worried that medicine is taken from them. It was only a food supplement.