Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House at this late hour to deal with this matter. The issue I am raising relates to what happens when people purchase drugs or medications from their local pharmacies. I understand that after they have made the maximum monthly payment of €144, they are not given a detailed breakdown of the total cost of the rest of the medication from which they are benefitting. I am open to correction in this regard. I have spoken to a number of people on this issue. One receives a receipt for the first €144 of one's medication, but one does not get the full details of what one receives thereafter. A person who uses medication costing €300 or €400 does not get a breakdown of what the full amount of money is spent on.

I believe this is one of the issues we need to tackle, particularly given that the cost of drugs in this country increased from €574 million in 2000 to €1.894 billion in 2010. I have raised this matter already in this House today. It is estimated that this country's drugs bill will reach approximately €2 billion this year. A number of recent reports have indicated that there are substantial variations in the cost of medication. An item that cost €16 in one pharmacy was found to cost €46 in another pharmacy in the same town or city. There are significant price variations between pharmacies.

I would like to mention a second aspect of this issue. In Ireland, some medication costs up to 25 times more than a similar item would cost in the UK. Nobody seems to be in control. I am giving a simple example of the urgent need to make people aware of how much their medication is costing. People should take a proactive approach to helping to reduce the cost of medication in this country. I reckon we are spending between 25% and 30% more than we should be spending at present. I appreciate that the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Bill 2012, which is being considered at present, advocates the use of generic drugs. However, generic drugs are between ten and 20 times more expensive in this country than in other jurisdictions. This issue needs to be tackled urgently.