Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly.

The State acknowledged the importance of access to medicines and has made considerable investments in new medicines in recent years. This year, a record of almost €3 billion of public funding will be spent on medicines for patients in Ireland. This represents almost €1 of every €8 spent by the State on healthcare. This is in the context of a total allocation for the health service for 2024 of €22.5 billion, as stated by the Senator. This level of investment is unprecedented in supporting patients through the availability of the latest and wide-ranging medicines. The last three budgets have included dedicated funding for new medicines of €98 million. This has enabled the HSE to approve reimbursement for 127 medicines and-or licence extensions, including 50 for treating cancer and 39 for treating rare diseases. However, expenditure has grown rapidly, and we must now ensure the sustainability of medicines expenditure. We must strive to maximise the available investment to provide as many people as possible with access to the medicines they need. In this context, there are policy and operational options being pursued and these will be intensified, including, for example, maximising the use of generic or biosimilar medicines across community and hospital settings.

Going into 2024, the Department of Health, the HSE, and all relevant agencies and stakeholders will place a priority focus on the efficient and effective use of available resources. Cost reductions in the acute and community settings can then be considered for reinvestment, as appropriate.

There will be investment to enhance the HSE’s pricing and reimbursement process for medicines. This is a recommendation by the working group established after the publication of the Mazars report, which the Minister for Health published in February.

Investing in capacity here will support the agencies involved in operating to the fullest of their abilities. This will enable them to conduct timely and efficient evaluations of medicines for reimbursement. More important, it will further support efforts to improve the sustainability of the State's pharmaceutical expenditure. It will also maximise the use of this substantial public investment to support access to more medicines for more people.

The State cannot increase the level of savings without additional capacity in this area. An element of this is quicker assessment of biosimilar and generic medicines, which will drive sustainability in the medicines budget. The Mazars implementation working group will continue its work and is due to report to the Minister for Health in the coming months.

The measures I have outlined here will form an essential tool for the State to deliver sustainability in the medicines budget.Sustainability is essential to ensure patients in Ireland can benefit from the best treatments possible. The Senator raised the issue of the corporate taxes from the pharmaceutical sector in particular and other sectors, but there is a recognition that these corporate taxes are not always completely stable. This sustainability work in our expenditure on pharmaceuticals is absolutely vital.