Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate that the concern the Deputy has raised is one that is widely shared. The National Consumer Agency report is useful because it focuses public attention on the particular instances the agency has addressed. The Deputy is absolutely right that this is a matter of continuing concern. It is of continuing concern to me, as a Minister of State with responsibility in the area, to the Minister for Health and to the Government generally that such variations in pricing can occur, sometimes in circumstances in which pharmacists are relatively close to each other and in the same area of a city. This needs to be rectified and, at the very least, explained and understood. Therefore, the Deputy is right to raise this issue.

The legislative and other measures that the Government has taken will have a real effect, particularly the legislation on generic substitution legislation which I mentioned, which the Deputy acknowledged and which has passed Committee Stage in the House. Once the legislation is enacted, the Irish Medicines Board, IMB, will commence assessment of medical products and groups of medicinal products to establish groups of interchangeable medicinal products. Once the IMB has published such a group, the HSE can set a reference price for it. There is also provision in the legislation for reference pricing, which involves comparisons with the prices of medicines in other comparable countries. The enactment and the operation of that legislation will have an important impact on this issue, about which we are all concerned. It is something about which we need to be vigilant. The agency report is very helpful in that regard.

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