Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Senator Burke and Deputy Ó Caoláin. I still have neighbours, families and friends crossing the Border or going to England to get cheaper drugs, or coming back from Spain with drugs they cannot even buy in this country without a prescription. That needs to be addressed quickly. I heard Senator Crown speak before about generic drugs, but why are patients less willing to take generic drugs? Is there any evidence that when patients are on generic drugs there is a longer recovery time? That is what I hear. I am only going by family and friends. When they are on generic drugs it takes them longer to get better.

I love listening to people speak on television about medical science, new cures or people having an opportunity to live longer if they have cancer, arthritis or something like that, but I get nervous when I see figures such as that in six years time, 40% more people in this country will be over 65 and people are going to live longer. They may live into their 80s, but will they be healthier? Research shows that perhaps they will not. My mother died at 89. She had a great life. She was never in hospital, except for in the last six months of her life when she had dementia. We took her home and we had her at home for most of the six months. One thing that struck me was that this was a woman who had lived a long life, had a large family, who had worked at stages of her life and yet was not there at all in the last few weeks of her life. She was just somebody lying in a bed whom none of us knew and who did not know any of us. I wonder about the quality of life people have when we produce medication that makes them live longer. Everyone wants to see family members living longer, but they must have a quality of life. There must be meaning for them in living longer, and it is very sad when their quality of life no longer exists. Why sustain that natural process of life? I am not a medical doctor, but one of my favourite songs is "Who Wants to Live Forever". There is great meaning in that. I see someone putting up his hand. He wants to live forever. I do not want to live forever. I want to have a decent life in order that when I come to its last stages, I am still able to do little things for myself, even though they may be simple. Living longer and not having a certain quality of life serves no purpose. I might as well be honest.