Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 14, subsection (2), line 7, to delete “180 days” and substitute “90 days”.

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. I have tabled a number of amendments to the Bill and I note that one of them has not been accepted. I wish to make the point that my party is supportive of this legislation. We have tabled some amendments upon which we hope the Minister of State can reflect, and we hope she will accept them, even if not today. Perhaps by the time the Bill returns to the Dáil they might be acceptable to her.

In terms of the actual amendment,180 days seems an inordinate amount of time to consider an application. If manufacturers apply for substitution, they may have to wait six months. What if one was dealing with Tysabri or some wonder drug? There is a strong rumour circulating, for example, that there is a wonder drug on the way for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, with near curative powers. The process begins when the manufacturer applies and then, within six months, we have an answer. What we are saying in our amendment is reasonable. Surely 90 days, or half of what the Bill proposes, is ample time to deliberate. Apart from the value for money aspects of this legislation and the fact that we all want cheaper drugs to be available, as the aim is to make newer, potentially more effective drugs available to patients, surely we can reduce the turnaround time. Depending on the conditions being treated, patients may worsen considerably over a six-month period or avoidable fatalities may occur in that timeframe.