Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator again for those further remarks. We look forward to progress being made at the discussions which are happening today.

I mentioned in passing earlier that regulations governing the pharmacy fee structure were made under the FEMPI legislation and that legislation expired at the end of 2019, thank God. Under the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017 these regulations had to be replaced by 1 January 2020 in order to maintain a statutory basis for contractor payments and to prescribe the fees payable at that date. The current pharmacy fee structure was put in place by the 2017 regulations which came into effect on 1 January 2020.That is why I mentioned this must be reviewed every three years and it is to be hoped those negotiations are progressing well at this stage. Since then, the overall spend on fees paid to community pharmacists under the community drugs scheme, has continued to rise year on year. The HSE's primary care reimbursement service online system shows fees paid to pharmacies under the scheme ranged from €420 million in 2019 rising to €468 million last year.