Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The motion proposed by Fianna Fáil on the Government's responsibility for high drug costs and pharmacy fees is inadequate and dripping with hypocrisy. Since the late 1980s, successive Fianna Fáil Governments have devastated the health service, cutting bed numbers from more than 18,000 to just over 10,000. Our bed numbers per head of population are now 2.8 per 1,000 compared to an EU average of 4.8 beds per 1,000 population.

The majority of these cuts were introduced by Fianna Fáil-led Governments. Equally, staffing levels and the incomes of health services workers were slashed by the most recent Fianna Fáil-led government. The notion that Fianna Fáil could, in all conscience, criticise anybody for his or her record in the Department of Health is laughable, but this is particularly true in respect of drug costs. Between 2002 and 2008 when Fianna Fáil was in power and Deputy Micheál Martin was Minister for Health, drug costs and pharmacy fees in particular and other income earned by pharmacies doubled from €800 million to €1.6 billion.

There is no doubt drug costs need to come down. The spend on them in Ireland is more than double that of Denmark while Ireland spends 77% more per capita on drugs annually than Norway, the richest country in Europe. However, the State still negotiates its prices around more countries where prices are higher instead of where they are cheaper. In contrast with the rest of the EU, generic prices in Ireland are not lower than branded drug prices. The recent €12 million payment to the HSE resulting from an overpayment of pharmacy fees highlights a wider systemic problem in our health service.

To address urgently the problems of access to drugs and the high cost of drugs, we call on the Government to desist from removing drugs from being covered by the General Medical Services, GMS, scheme, abolish prescription charges, set up a national pharmacy co-operative that can offer drugs at prices equivalent to other EU member states such as Denmark and reverse the cuts to both the earnings of health care workers and staffing levels.

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