Dr. Michael McCarthy:

I think so. It is important to have a robust reimbursement process so we can use taxpayers' money wisely but the reimbursement process in Ireland is one of the most robust internationally. When it comes to the reality of getting access to drugs, the Irish market, for commercial companies, does not make Ireland a priority if it is difficult for them to get drugs assessed for reimbursement. Not all the EMA-approved drugs should be made available, on a cost-benefit basis, but not all are assessed by our current process. In a substantial proportion of cases, the applicants withdraw their application before reaching a decision. If the reimbursement process could be streamlined to deliver faster decisions, that is the scenario in which insurers would come back on board with the public standard, as they used to do three or four years ago.