Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

The €5 is the top fee that is paid under the current structure. The €6.50 is the once-off fee for contraception. I gave pharmacists the option to charge above €6.50 - €7, €8, €9 or €10, whatever they wanted - and they refused that. It is a very interesting position for the Deputy to have adopted this evening. I am trying to give every option possible to deliver for the women of Ireland, but I am hearing IPU speaking notes back, which is an interesting position for the Labour Party to take. What is the cost of setting the fee at €6.50 for the rest of the schemes that we have? We can tease this through over the coming days, but I strongly suggest and hope that pharmacists will sign up. The best option for the women of Ireland is a €5 dispensing fee to be paid to pharmacists because it makes it completely free for women. I would have thought that everybody in this House on the side of the women of Ireland would be behind that and working through the other issues that are also there. I engaged strongly with the IPU at its conference and since its conference. I thanked it for its continued engagement. I hope we will find a way through on all of these issues, but I have learned a lot about the Labour Party's position this evening.

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