Mr. Finian Judge:

The Deputy mentioned the HSE and the Department in terms of where the bottlenecks may occur. As I said in my opening statement, statutory responsibility for decision making in terms of reimbursement rests solely with the HSE. The Department is out of loop in terms of the decision making process.

On the substantive issue of the perceived delay in Ireland, there are various lists of where Ireland sits in regard to other European countries. We have no idea how these lists are put together and what is regarded as reimbursement in one country in comparison with another. Over the last number of years a lot of medicines have been reimbursed. Practically none has been refused.