Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for giving up their valuable time to speak with us today. Dr. Murphy and Dr. O'Brien have said that prescribing antidepressants reflects a lack of psychological therapies and a lack of social therapies. This is serious and has the potential of snowballing and becoming more serious. Do the doctors have statistics to back up this contention and could they comment further on this issue?

The committee recently discussed the need for GPs to be transparent on the issue of gifts received, for example, from pharmaceutical companies. Do the witnesses feel that this is relevant with regard to the overall regulations around prescribed drugs? Perhaps the doctors will also comment on the medicines management programme.

Professor Horgan said that trainees are taught to combat the rise of antibiotic resistant bacterial infections. This is an ongoing concern. Surely training is not enough. Will Professor Horgan please comment on this issue?

Will Professor Fahey explain why he believes that electronic prescribing and dispensing of drugs do not interact effectively? Are there any plans to introduce the system that is currently in place in the UK?