Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the area of corporate affairs, there are 27.4 staff. There are 8.1 staff assigned to information and records management. There is no marketing unit at present. The staff of my Department includes services staff and those who are assigned to the private offices, constituency offices, the press office and also internal audit. I think I have enough staff. The staff complement of the Department is approximately 200 but that is a matter for the Secretary General, not me.

I do not have an update on BeNeLuxA, save to say that, last week, the Cabinet gave the Minister for Health permission to issue a letter of intent to the countries involved setting out our intent to work with them and perhaps join that group and to ensure that we can share information and negotiate on the cost of medicines together in order to get a better price for medicines and obtain quicker access to new medicines for Irish patients, which are twin objectives. It may require an international agreement and it is only then that the matter will come back to my office. In the interim, the Minister for Health will be dealing with it.

I went to see "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" at the Lighthouse cinema on Sunday night.

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