Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 March 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

National Medicines Strategy: Discussion

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

Yes, we are limited in what we can do at a national level. We have tried it before. Once upon a time I was a member of a health board where we tried it as well and it was not very successful. Let me outline the problem. There are 500 million people in the European Union and they are the answer. They are a powerful market that has a huge influence. Their pocket books are important as they can influence policy across the board in a way that nobody else can. Five million people may have a say in these issues but 500 million people would have a bigger say and we must be realistic. As I have many times before, we are members of the European Union but we do not always get the full benefits that we are entitled to from our membership of the European Union in terms of access to medicines, which has been deemed to be a fringe issue and is not seen to be a core issue for every citizen in the Union. The fact of the matter is that it is a core issue. It is an issue that can totally affect the lives of many families throughout the country and every day totally unrealistic prices are being sought for treatments at the present time. It is morally wrong that we should be in that situation and at the same time be part of the European Union.

I reiterate that we need to check with our European colleagues what the prices are in all of the member states. There is no good saying that we should select a number of states, as we did in the past, say 12 or 13 states, and use the average price as a benchmark. That is not acceptable either. People have the same values and entitlements all over Europe and we need to assert ourselves on that one.

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