Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am aware of the issue and am beginning to examine that. It is a pan-European problem so perhaps I can come back to the Deputy on it. I am very aware of it. On the cost of HRT, provision was made in the budget for HRT products but not for the dispensing fee. That is covered in parliamentary questions going back to October and November last year and that position has not changed. The Government set aside money to pay for the products but not the dispensing fee for pharmacists. I have met the pharmaceutical union. I am engaging with it to see if there is something we can do but the reality is we do not have the budget to carry the dispensing fees. Patients are being charged €48 or €62 or whatever the fee is, but you do not see the breakdown of the cost. If a woman is getting two HRT products, for example, she is paying two dispensing fees, which might be €7, €8, €9 or €10 per product. We intend to cover the cost of the medication. If we were to extend the budgetary allowance for that, I would have to take that from somewhere else and that would mean we would not be able to do something else. I am trying to find a resolution. I ask the Deputy to please allow me a couple of weeks to do that. I hope the pharmaceutical union will come back with something we can work on.

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