Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with everything the Deputy has said. The health committee of the previous Dáil spent a lot of time considering this. The good news is that there are some amazing, life-changing and lifesaving new drugs out there. A lot of them are so-called high-tech drugs, which are very expensive, and the HSE has been paying a lot more for such drugs. In recent years, for example, the amount spent on the high-tech drugs alone has gone up from €400 million to €700 million per year, a very significant increase. Part of the frustration for this calendar year is that there was no allocation in the service plan for new drugs. That has been part of the reason that some of the drugs have been held up. I say this without prejudice to this particular drug because, as the Deputy says, this is an independent assessment process. What I can say is that I have allocated €50 million for 2021 to new drugs. I agree with the Deputy that Ireland in some cases is behind the curve and he and I have been given evidence that sometimes we are late to the party in allocating new drugs. We are all the time trying to balance making as many of the new and exciting drugs available as possible for as many people in Ireland as possible with the very real cost constraints. As the Deputy will be aware, negotiations take time and, in fairness to the HSE, at least in several examples I have seen, it does succeed in securing a lower unit price for the drugs which, given any budget, means we can make more and more drugs available.

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