Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)

This week, patients with spinal muscular atrophy, SMA, came to the audiovisual room to highlight their case for equal access to treatments and drugs. As Minister for Health in 2017, the Tánaiste once described the reimbursement system we have as being in serious jeopardy. He may actually have inferred that it was broken. Every paper published since then continues to show HSE non-adherence to timelines as outlined in the Health Act. The Mazars report says the HSE was not adhering to the spirit of the legislation. Subsequently, at least four academic papers have highlighted the decision timelines for reimbursements involving health technology assessments, HTAs, have exceeded that 180 days. The Irish Examiner published an article last year, which noted it was taking 180 days just to get a reply from the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, NCPE. In February this year, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, IPHA, published three years of data showing 86% of applications exceeded the legislative timeline. In light of this, and I would appreciate a direct answer if he can, does the Tánaiste believe the HSE is adhering to these timelines and what will we do to ensure it does?

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