Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

It is the State. Consequently, if we examine the consumer market, it will be clear that there is and can be little price competition between pharmacies, particularly in the case of medical card customers since these customers obtain all their medical requirements at zero cost.

Other services provided by pharmacists, such as advice on health issues, about which we heard in the House, are generally provided free of charge. I can go into Mr. Niall Weir's pharmacy, Mr. Richard Woods' pharmacy, McEvilly's or any pharmacy in Mullingar and the staff will advise me. I have had a few health issues and in this regard they have been very good to me. For the life of me, I cannot understand how services provided by the State, in respect of which prices are fixed the whole way down the supply chain, can come within the terms of section 4 of the Competition Act 2002. Even if they did, the conduct of negotiations in which there is a considerable interest involved, in addition to the individual's right to association and representation, would come within the terms of section 4(5) of the Act.

I would like to review the provisions of section 4(5). It allows conduct that would normally be considered to be anti-competitive where certain conditions are met. It must be established that the anti-competitive conduct satisfies the following conditions: contributes to improving the production or distribution of goods or provision of services or to promoting technical or economic progress, allows consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit, does not impose on the undertakings concerned terms which are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives and does not afford undertakings the possibility of eliminating competition in respect of a substantial part of the products or services in question.

The objective of the State is to provide medicines to people who cannot afford to pay for them. The Act states: "contributes to improving the distribution of goods or services relative to what would be the case in the absence of the arrangement". It does not take a genius to come to the conclusion that if these medicines are not supplied and the Government does not pay for them, people will not be able to afford to pay for them.

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