Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The Minister of State got an answer that was about access to consultants and doctors; it was not about treatments and therapies, which was the question I asked. The Minister of State got an answer to a different question of inequity in healthcare.

I reiterate we cannot continue to allow to have two-tier access to oncology drugs and vaccines based on whether people have the ability to pay. I will keep repeating this. The area access pilot programme to oncology drugs has to come in. We have to, basically, cop-on in the Department of Health in the area of running through and reimbursements of healthcare. People are dying in the public health system because they are not getting access to drugs. People who cannot afford to pay for shingles drugs, for example, are getting sicker, spending time in hospitals, spending time out of work, and unable to take part in their communities and their normal lives because of their inability to pay for a vaccine that works, that is effective and cost-effective, and proven so.

The Minister of State is only reading off what the Department provided and he is not in the Department, and it shows. It is a prime example of why a Minister from the Department should be here answering the relevant questions.

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