Mr. Shaun Flanagan:

Again, on the reimbursement process, we have been going back over the past number of years trying to find ways to speed up things. One of the things that rang true for me was the sustainable reimbursement model that Dr. De Block talked about and the importance of certainly and surety around the amount of funding that will be available in future years. At times, because of the economic situation, we have obviously been challenged around the budget for new drugs that has been in place, or not been in place, in particular years. That can have an impact on the ability of the HSE to fund products. Again, echoing what the Deputy said, the importance of things such as the 2022 Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, IPHA, agreement in terms of making headroom is critical. It is critical to be able to do that.

One of the benefits, strangely enough, of the pandemic has been that previously on our negotiations, we were face to face, whereas obviously, with the pandemic, we have had to get negotiations more virtual and had MS Teams-type scenarios. The negotiating team has continued that model now that we are hopefully – we thought anyway at least – exiting Covid-19. That has given us additional benefits in terms of just being able to schedule. Again, like many parts of the HSE, there is a view going on at the moment around whether we need additional resources to accelerate our ability to carry on more, if you want to put it that way, negotiations on at the same time because, obviously, at the moment, we have a limit in terms of the team being fairly put to the pin of its collar. That is something again that may very well feature in the national service plan in terms of an ask for additional resource.