Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have almost come to the end. Generally, there seems to be consensus that people are in favour of the Bill. The witness mentioned that, at the moment, 11,000 people are using this scheme. I am surprised we have not even done an assessment of those people in terms of encouraging others into this system. For anyone listening at home, we would encourage them, if they have accommodation, to join the scheme, despite some concerns raised by one of the members about it. In regard to the figure of €14,000, I know it is outside of the Department's remit but how did we come up with that figure? For many people who are trying to rent a room, €14,000 would be a relatively good price in today's market. Many people are paying a lot more. Given the current difficulties for people trying to get accommodation, how did the €14,000 figure come about? I understand it is outside the scope of the Department but have the witnesses any comments on whether there is flexibility down the road? I presume, if the Minister decides it is to be €16,000 or €17,000, it is just a matter of amending the legislation.

An area that some people will have a concern about is under head 8 whereby, during periods of medical shortages, pharmacies can therapeutically substitute another product in line with improved protocol. From my own experience and that of people in the system, when the product is changed, it creates a worry for people. People are used to a particular product and how their body reacts to it and so on. Changing it to a substitute product or a generic product means some people will say that affects them differently. Some people at home would certainly have concerns about that. Will the witnesses comment on that?

Overall people will welcome the Bill. This is similar to pre-legislative scrutiny. The Members decided we would bring this in. There were concerns about the roll-out of it. It makes sense that we give more powers to pharmacies, particularly having seen the challenges created by Covid-19. We do not know what is coming down the track but it makes sense that we spread the ability of people to be able to give out other medical products to patients.

The palliative care element was mentioned in the opening statement. Will the witnesses expand on that? In regard to some of the products, what general area will this legislation apply to? I presume there is quite regularly a shortage of antibiotics. That was one of the drugs people mentioned there is some shortage of. The area of big pharma whereby products come from all over the world was also mentioned. Are the shortages in particular countries? I presume that in the main we get products from within the EU or the greater Europe area. Are there particular countries where difficulties have arisen in recent years? I understand there were challenges with supply chains coming out of China, mainly due to some of the products that make up the drugs. Will witnesses identify countries where problems arose in recent years?

There are many questions but the witnesses might answer a few of them.