Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the cost of drugs in the health service. It follows on from a detailed report from Susan Mitchell in The Sunday Business Post this week which indicated that in some cases we are now paying 24 times more than what the same drug costs in the United Kingdom. One drug, which is prescribed for patients with a psychiatric complaint, costs the equivalent of ¤50 per treatment in the UK for 12 months whereas here it costs ¤1,200.

The cost of drugs has increased from ¤572 million a year in 2000 to ¤1.894 billion in 2010. That is a 230% increase over a ten year period. The Minister has negotiated down the price by ¤400 million over a three year period, but my understanding is that when we are replacing generic drugs with branded products, the generic drugs would be cheaper, and certainly sold at a competitive price.