James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I thought my answer was clear on how the situation had changed. However, the old saying comes to mind, "There are none so blind as those who will not see and none so deaf as those who will not listen." The reality is that not alone were the coffers empty when we arrived in government but there was a stack of IOUs in them as well. The money is not there to do what I wanted to, as already stated in my original reply. It was also one of the first actions I wanted to take on first becoming Minister. I still believe any barrier to someone taking their medicines is to be avoided.

There are many other ways, which we are investigating, for reducing the drugs bill and the amount of drugs prescribed, which are sometimes hoarded by people of which I had personal experience as a GP. This can be done with the aid of pharmacists monitoring what is prescribed and double-checking whether a person has used his or her full amount of medication. Some medications are prescribed on a PRN, pro re nata, basis. Much work can be done in this regard.

It is clear with the difficult financial situation in which this country finds itself and with €2.5 billion gone out of the €16 billion health budget in the past three years, we are not able to do many of the things we would like to do. That does not mean that sometime in the future we will not be able to achieve that goal of repealing these charges.

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