Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are great potential benefits from standardisation, provided the highest standards are met. That is obvious. There are three issues - the possibility of reduced costs, increased efficiency and standardisation to the highest standard. If those three conditions can be met within the proposal, my question is whether it runs foul of subsidiarity as present. However, so do a number of other things that we were led to believe were the exclusive rights of the member states, corporation tax being one of them. Some of our colleagues have decided to find a way around that and to encroach on that territory. An issue arises there. I strongly believe in standardisation and getting the benefits of EU population numbers in terms of assessment of costs and avoiding duplication. It is and should be possible. Does it augur in any way for Irish pharmaceutical manufacturers in terms of their access, remuneration or whatever the case may be?

There is no sense in introducing something that does not deal with the entire spectrum of drugs. Given that orphan drugs, for example, are not going to be part of the parcel at this stage, one has to ask why they cannot be and when that can happen. That is one of the issues we urgently require to be dealt with at present.

I strongly support the European assessment, as I have said previously at these meetings, provided we achieve the highest standards. It would be a good exercise in democracy if our national standard bearers were to become part of that European assessment bloc so we would have national representation there as well, similar to the way the ECB has representation from the national central banks as well. If that were done we could have the benefits of high standards, efficiency and lower costs.