Dr. Eva Orsmond:

I was anticipating that somebody would ask me how we could save money in the health budget. We could save money through the measure of improving people's health. Type 2 diabetes care is costing the Government millions of euro. By reducing the incidence of diabetes by 10% we could save €145 million in the health budget. I see this regularly. It is not only early diagnosed diabetes but also diabetes that has lasted well over five years. People are on insulin medication which is costing the Government a fortune. We would have to incentivise people if the disease is due to lifestyle. The threshold for the medication could be increased. We should have some sort of incentive to stop taking the money from the vulnerable people whose lifestyle can be changed.

I am not in politics but my comments are based on my surgery and the patients I see. I have patients whose medication costs the Government €400 per month. Once patients lose the weight they basically only spend €20 or €50 per month on medication. This is all realistic. Obviously, not everybody has the will power or the resources at present. However, if one was given the funding to set a trial or show something like that, I am sure we could increase these numbers. We are talking about €145 million for a 10% reduction. One can look at the list of prescription drugs and what drugs are most often prescribed. Statin drugs are prescribed like sweets at present. They are based on trials showing there is a huge decrease in the cardiovascular risk factor profile, but many people are on these medications because they are told they have a genetic background for this disease. In reality, it is an environmental problem. Their parents were already overweight, they were eating in a certain way and they created the cardiovascular disease, not because it was genetical but due to their lifestyle. These people did not get it from their genes but from their environment.

We need to start looking at where we can save money. I understand that we cannot appear here and propose ideas that will cost more. We are in a bad recession and even though I am not a politician I know that. However, I have ideas on what we could do to incentivise and save money. It would also give people a huge improvement in their quality of life, more years of life and result in more productive workers. People would be able to create employment and get this country moving again.