Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 4, after line 6, to insert the following:

“Contraception services for certain women

4.The Act of 1970 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 67D:

“67E.(1)The Health Service Executive shall make available without charge contraception services for women who are ordinarily resident in the State—

(a) who have attained the age of 17 years but not yet attained the age of 26 years, or

(b) who are within such class or classes of ages as may be prescribed by the Minister under subsection (5), and

such women shall, in this section, be referred to as ‘relevant women’.

(2) Insofar as the contraception services relate to the provision of applicable services to a relevant woman, the relevant woman may choose to receive such services from any person who has entered into an agreement with the Health Service Executive for the provision of those services and who is willing to accept that woman as a patient.

(3) Insofar as the contraception services relate to the provision of relevant products to a relevant woman, the relevant woman shall be entitled to receive a relevant product from a pharmacy provider.

(4) Notwithstanding subsections (1) and (2), the following shall apply in respect of a woman who is ordinarily resident in the State (whether or not she falls within the definition of a relevant woman) and who has had a long-acting reversible contraceptive device fitted before she attained the age of 26 years (or such other age as may be prescribed by the Minister under subsection (5)), namely:

(a) the woman concerned may, notwithstanding that she has attained the age of 26 years (or such other age as may be prescribed by the Minister under subsection (5)), choose to seek the removal of such device by any person who has entered into an agreement with the Health Service Executive for the provision of contraception services and who is willing to accept her as a patient;

(b) the Health Service Executive shall, in respect of that woman, make available such removal without charge.

(5) Subject to subsection (6), the Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, may, for the purposes of subsection (1)(b) and subsection (4), by regulation prescribe such further age or class or classes of ages in respect of women to whom the contraception services referred to in subsections (1) and (4) shall be made available under this section.

(6) In making regulations under subsection (5), the Minister shall not prescribe an age under the age of 17 years.

(7) The Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, by regulation prescribe the amount or the rate of payment to be made to—

(a) scheme providers in respect the provision of applicable services by them under agreements referred to in subsection (2), or

(b) pharmacy providers in respect of the dispensing of relevant products by them under this section.

(8) Regulations made under subsection (7) may prescribe different amounts or rates— (a) in respect of different contraception services or different classes of contraception services, or in respect of the provision of contraception services or different classes of contraception services to different classes of relevant women, or (b) in respect of different scheme providers or pharmacy providers or different classes of scheme providers or pharmacy providers.

(9) Regulations under this section may contain such incidental, supplementary, consequential or transitional provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary for the purposes of the regulations.

(10) Every regulation made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it has been made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(11) In this section— ‘Act of 2013’ means the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013;

‘applicable services’ means—

(a) such number of consultations with a scheme provider required by a relevant woman in a year for the purposes of obtaining a prescription for accessing relevant products, and

(b) the fitting (including such further follow-up consultation as is necessary) and removal by a scheme provider of a long-acting reversible contraceptive device;

‘contraception services’, means, in relation to a relevant woman—

(a) applicable services, or

(b) relevant products,

or both, made available without charge under this section;

‘pharmacy provider’ means a retail pharmacy business (within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Pharmacy Act 2007) who has entered into an agreement with the Health Service Executive for the dispensing of relevant products;

‘registered medical practitioner’ has the same meaning as it has in section 2 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007;

‘relevant products’, subject to sections 20 and 23 of the Act of 2013, means contraceptive drugs, medicines and products (including long-acting reversible contraceptive devices and emergency contraceptives) for the time being—

(a) standing approved by the Heath Service Executive, or

(b) on the Reimbursement List within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Act of 2013;

‘scheme provider’ means a registered medical practitioner who has entered into an agreement with the Health Service Executive for the provision of applicable services.”.”.

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