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

The commitment in the budget last year was to provide for HRT medication to be free. That has been available to be implemented since January. The Deputy is correct to say that there had not been enough dialogue with pharmacists in the context of the implementation of the scheme. I met the Irish Pharmacy Union twice - in early February and again last week - in order to try to resolve the issues relating to the scheme and make sure that the medication is free. Women are paying in or around €45 to €50 for HRT at the moment. We need to reduce that. There was no provision in the budget last year to pay the dispensing fee, as would often be the case with other schemes. Women on the drugs payment scheme will obviously be covered if they are paying more than €80. Those on medical cards are also covered. We want the cost of the medication to be eliminated and just the dispensing fee to be left. The matter is still under negotiation with pharmacists more broadly to make sure it is workable for them.

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