Dr. Jean O'Sullivan:

I will reiterate what Deputy Kelleher has said. The key reason this Bill is so important is that it will give patients full assurance that any decision made to start them on new treatment or new therapy is made purely on clinical grounds and is based purely on best available international evidence and peer-reviewed research, as opposed to any conflict of interest. It is important that patients and general practitioners have full access to any conflict of interest. When we see reports in the media that there are staff working in public hospitals who are fully funded by pharmaceutical companies, patients and their families need to know that the staff treating them are acting purely on best international clinical practice as opposed to being funded by pharmaceutical companies. It is really about transparency. There is nothing wrong with pharmaceutical companies funding research or new treatments, but it is important that it is fully transparent. Similarly, when the HSE drug bill is so colossal, I think it is important that taxpayers know that the decisions to buy different drugs or to use different drugs in hospitals at their expense are made purely on the best clinical evidence that is available internationally and for no other reason.