Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is always a tendency for Ministers and their Departments to hold the line on something and maintain that they are right. Obviously, they have done a lot of the work on it and there is generally a reluctance to accept amendments from the Opposition. That is standard practice regardless of the Minister's party, but it is an old-fashioned way of doing business in many ways and demonstrates an assumption that the Minister has a monopoly on wisdom. It would be much more meaningful, in terms of having real debate in this Chamber if, from time to time, the points made by the Opposition were listened to and the Minister gave a meaningful response to those points.

As has been said already, everybody speaking in the House supports this Bill. We all agree that much more needs to be done to reduce the drugs bill, and generic substitution is one element in a range of measures that must be put in place to bring our drugs bill into line with those of other European countries, because it is way out of line at the moment. We pay more for drugs than any other country in Europe. That is a matter of serious concern and it is causing ongoing difficulties with the health budget.

We have all come here in good faith to raise genuine concerns about what is seen to be a genuine issue with one aspect of this legislation. We support all of the rest of it. We are not doing that to waste time or for something to do. We are here because, having met with people who have epilepsy and various groups campaigning in this area, we believe that a genuine issue arises.

I was not at the Committee Stage debate but I do not believe there has been real engagement on the part of the Minister of State in regard to this issue because he has not explained to us the reason he is not prepared to exempt epilepsy drugs for people who have epilepsy.

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