Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also take the opportunity to offer my deepest condolences to the family of Saoírse Ruane, her parents, Ollie and Roseanna, her sisters and all who knew and loved her. I was fortunate enough to meet Saoírse at Croke Park some years ago. I was very much struck by her radiant smile, her warm personality and her love of sports, including Gaelic games. Saoírse inspired so many people with her positivity and courage. She has left an extraordinary legacy through the RTÉ toy show appeal. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.

Turning to the point made by the Deputy, it is worth recalling and pointing out that about €3 billion is spent by the State on medicines annually. This is an enormous sum of money. It is important that we always strive to get value for money in terms of the spending of that €3 billion and strive for the best outcomes for patients. The HSE has approved about 148 new medicines in the past three years from €98 million in new medicines funding. It is not true, therefore, to say that nothing has happened. I did raise these issues when I was in opposition, and since we came into government additional money has been allocated every year. In the last three years, this has amounted to €98 million, with 148 new medicines approved. The total expenditure in that basket was about €327 million, to the end of 2023. We also made €30 million available this year for new drugs. There has been €20 million in new Government investment and the HSE has been requested to identify €10 million in efficiencies, which will be reinvested in new medicines. This morning, the Minister announced an additional 35 staff for the corporate pharmaceutical unit in the HSE. It is very welcome news that positions are being filled that had been vacant as a result of people moving on to other areas. The Minister has also agreed to create a tracker to monitor the journey of a medicine through the administrative process.

The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, IPHA, is the industry lobby group. That is fair. It lobbies on behalf of the industry in respect of new medicines and the pricing around them and it would say it has a good and robust relationship with the Minister. The health technology assessment, as the Deputy is aware, is carried out primarily by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, NCPE. The IPHA has said it has a good and robust professional working relationship with that aspect of the process too, although it is concerned about administrative delays. When a product comes out of the NCPE process, it moves to a group in the HSE that evaluates drugs in terms of value for money, etc. The idea here is to get this process speeded up. The IPHA's view is that this currently takes too long.

Taking last year as an example, it is estimated that if we had accepted the original prices the industry put forward for all the new drugs, we would have spent about €400 million extra. In reality, we spent €200 million. There is a need, therefore, for a fairly robust engagement here with the industry on an ongoing, annual basis in respect of drugs that come forward.

Deputies Pádraig O'Sullivan and Lahart and others have been very strong advocates in the area of rare diseases and orphan drugs. There has been significant progress on that with the establishment of the working group and so forth. We are anxious to work with industry to see if we can develop a more effective approach to offering medicines with a fast-track assessment process. That is under consideration.

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