Mr. Philip Watt:

On whether the same body should be responsible for assessing and considering the price of drugs, that happens by default. There should be a scientific analysis of the particular drugs using a hospital treatment insight, HTI, system that we can all agree with, and then that assessment is done. It is slightly odd to see the person responsible for making those judgments talking on RTÉ the next day arguing about the price. I greatly admire Professor Michael Barry. To me, it is a conflict of interest when he, as the Chief Medical Officer decides whether a drug is good enough, goes on radio the next day and says that the drug is not worth the price that has been offered. Naturally, when one is on the airwaves one will use any argument to support one's reason to deny a drug and one quickly starts talking spin whether one likes it or not. The NCP should be given the task of making judgments and somebody from the corporate pharmaceutical unit, CPU, of the HSE should be the person discussing the price on the airwaves. The squeezing of the margins is part of the problem.

In terms of genetics, Professor Smyth compiled a report on the future of genetic services in Ireland five years ago. Virtually nothing has been done but the HSE is recruiting a couple of people to work in this area, which is positive. I was not surprised by what was said earlier concerning genetic services because they are completely understaffed. The staff are fantastic, do their best and provide great support to patients. The current situation is a national outcome of a decade where clinical genetic services have been underfunded.

We considered the HSE's service plan from two years ago. We noted that clinical genetic services were not mentioned and not even the word "genetics". The HSE is playing catch up. Genetics and the human genome are the way forward in terms of personalised medicine. It is only now that we are getting our heads around that aspect.

That is why there must be an overall Government strategy that recognises all of these new developments.