Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I attended a meeting recently for people suffering from chronic pain. It was pitiful. People in awful pain must continually change their drugs. While I understand that we are trying to save taxpayers' money, when people are under duress and suffering terrible pain, we must guarantee that they do not get cheap drugs for the sake of it. Another person I have had contact with was on blood-thinning drugs for a heart condition. His doctor prescribed an expensive blood thinner rather than a generic drug because that is the one that worked for him. I want a guarantee from the Irish Medicines Board that if a doctor advises in good faith that a more expensive medicine is required, the patient will get that drug. I read here that medicines will only be substituted where it is safe to do so.

There are 37,000 people with epilepsy in the State. How much cheaper will it be to switch to generic drugs? What kind of savings are we talking about? Why can the Irish Medicines Board not provide this information before we pass the Bill? I will follow up this matter on Report Stage. I am very concerned for patients.