Professor Michael Barry:

First, I believe in the concept of getting value for money. When we follow this process we reduce expenditure on medication, which makes money available in other areas of the health service.

I agree with the Deputy that we would all like to see a faster, more efficient process. That is what we are moving towards. In recent years, we have seen investment in that, and quite rightly. We take approximately 222 days for orphan drugs and 219 days for cancer drugs. I want to see that time reduced significantly because I get what the Deputy is saying, completely. We are only one part of the delays, as the Deputy will see. However, we will focus on ourselves for the moment. I want to see the process get better and I believe we can do better in it. On the issue about early access, as we mentioned already, it is something we are beginning to open up.

I am hopeful that will also be brought to bear and that we will make drugs available and do the assessments. Then you can decide later what you are going to pay for the drug. It should not surprise us in the area of therapeutics, but with cancer drugs, for instance, not all of them will prolong your life. Not all cancer drugs will improve your quality of life. In fact, fewer than half will. That is the reality. I have no issues with paying top dollar for drugs that work very well. It is when they do not that is the issue. Then the question is whether we would be better putting those millions of euro into somewhere else, like home help, disabilities or acute hospital care. Those are the challenges, as members well know. We can do better and we can do it faster. We should assess these drugs.