Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are overt transfers of value and more subtle transfers of value. On educational activities, apart from educational activities that occur abroad, there are substantial educational activities that occur in Ireland which are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. For example, a lecture may be sponsored by a company, the topic of which is a drug which is particularly related to that company, and this is portrayed as an educational evening for doctors, consultants or GPs. How could that be approached in this Bill?

A pharmaceutical company may exert a subtle influence by sponsoring a specialist nurse. There may be a dermatology nurse who visits a practice once a month or once every three months to review particular dermatological conditions and suggest treatments which invariably are produced by the sponsoring company.

It is happening more regularly now that companies are going into nursing homes and carrying out dietary and nutritional assessments on the residents in that nursing home and suggesting food supplements which are invariably produced by that company. Ethics were mentioned earlier, and I would have a difficulty with the ethics of such behaviour.

On the sponsoring of equipment, in many public hospitals now, and this has been discussed in the Committee on the Future of Healthcare and in this committee, there is a mix between public and private patients. Many companies are now sponsoring a unit or a respiratory lab or cardiology lab. They may also be employing the nurses who are running that lab. There is a temptation for physicians to use that lab inordinately for their private patients. There is a conflict there. Can this Bill be expanded to cover that?

There are influences in the pharmaceutical world where companies will offer certain discounts to pharmacies to dispense one generic product instead of another. There is a subtle influence on the pharmaceutical industry in terms of prescribing. Perhaps Deputy Kelleher could address those issues.