Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy very much. I will bring his comments to the attention of the Minister for Health. As I said, the State spent more than €3 billion on medicines last year, which is a new record. This is in the context of a total health budget of €22.5 billion, which is another record. At the same time, however, it is a person who needs that orphan drug, for example, and it will make a difference to that person's life. The Deputy said that in August 2023, the NCPE completed a rapid review of Vutrisiran, the factors of which are evaluated during rapid review. On this occasion, it decided not to recommend it. Importantly, that is only one component of nine. The decision was taken by the HSE. At the same time, 1% of the population in Donegal is a large number of people, so I am delighted to be able to confirm again that the HSE has decided to approve reimbursement subject to a managed access protocol. Hopefully, that will happen very quickly. I thank the Deputy again for raising this really important issue.

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