Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

I organised and attended the meeting because I was interested in exploring the role of pharmacists as Dr. White rolls out his clinical pathways. Pharmacists have major expertise and are important professionals in the health care system. I would like to see them more involved in some of the new clinical pathways. The pilot this summer will give us much information about the role of pharmacists. The meeting had nothing to do with the Competition Act. The HSE can meet with the IPU and have discussions about anything except the setting of prices.

With regard to reference pricing, we published the report of the group chaired by Mark Moran, and we will be introducing reference pricing and generic substitution. The intention is that for particular types of drug there will be a generic or reference price drug which will be paid for by the State under both the drug payment scheme and the medical card scheme. The scheme deals only with drugs that provide the same outcome; there is no question of people not receiving the drugs that are appropriate for their conditions. Pharmacists here do not have the power to substitute as they do in other countries. In Ireland, more than 80% of prescriptions are written in their branded form, while in the UK the equivalent figure is 12%. Reference pricing now exists in 25 out of the 27 member states of the EU, and we are now following suit in order to move ourselves into line with these countries. The legislation will be introduced as soon as possible later this year.

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