James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Maloney inquired as to whether the Presidency will have an impact on our bill in respect of prescription drugs. I do not believe it will have an effect one way or the other. The agreements we have in place with the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, IPHA, and the Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of Ireland, APMI, which represents the generic producers, both last until 2015.

We have prescribing initiatives in place now which will involve six pharmacists in the General Medical Service payments board who will be examining general practitioners' prescribing habits and advising them on how to improve it. To put it bluntly, if a patient has a condition which is costing €400 per month to treat and an examination reveals that the same result can be achieved for €200 by prescribing similar but different drugs, obviously that is to the benefit of other patients who can then avail of that resource that is saved. In terms of the answer, I do not envisage the Presidency improving it but I see our costs in regard to pharmaceuticals improving over the period the Deputy mentioned.

Regarding Senator MacSharry's question, the more interaction there is, the more opportunity for interaction with the Northern Ireland Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Mr. Poots MLA, but the Minister and I have had several discussions on that. He is extremely open to it. He is a pragmatic individual and the two of us intend to take a tour of the cross-Border facilities, not just to see the big items such as the hospitals but the ones people might not think of, such as a community nursing unit in Lifford with the possibility of affording a service to people across the Border in Strabane, a GP who might be isolated in Blacklion availing of a roster across the Border, the issue of ambulances, and an air ambulance service stretching up the whole length of the coast whereby if they had an air ambulance they could cover the north west, we could move down the coast with our cover in a more concentrated fashion. There is a host of possibilities and all that will continue apace.

On whether the European Union affords us some increased activity around that, I would like to think it will but we will be looking to co-operate in every way we can, particularly in terms of some of the ones the Senator mentioned which are big ticket items such as cardiology, oncology and radiotherapy, but also on other issues which do not spring to mind immediately but which can make a huge difference to the populations either side of the Border.

Senator Colm Burke asked about the cross-Border initiative on health care. We will pursue that through the EU, as has been the case in the past.