Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare

International Health Care Systems: Dr. Josep Figueras

9:00 am

Photo of Billy KelleherBilly Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----for the money they have paid. I would be interested to hear Dr. Figueras's view on the issue of prescribing. We have a major issue of over-prescribing which we need to address. We have a dependence on drugs such as benzodiazepines and there are other areas where there is a propensity to prescribe more than is needed.

An area where all member states could have problems, particularly when there are tight budgetary problems and a requirements to stay within EU fiscal rules, is the issue of investing now for the future. Most member states have to run budget deficits of less than 3% per annum because of EU fiscal rules. It is difficult for a country to invest a large sum of money now in, say, the areas of health and well-being and tackling obesity - I know vaccines are exempt from these rules - in that it would put pressure on governments because they would be breaching the fiscal rules now-----

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