Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank both colleagues for their support. It is greatly appreciated. I will speak to the queries raised. The GMS levy will continue as is. There is a fairly modest prescription fee that applies to all GMS patients. That will still apply.

The second question is an interesting one about whether we can in the future - and why we did not now - cover all associated costs.I am referring to, for example, GP consultations, coil insertion fees and payments to pharmacists. We examined this matter. I have allocated a large amount of money – €20 million – in new development funding for next year. We broadly had two options for spending the money in year one. The first was akin to the free contraception scheme. End to end, the State would cover GP consultations, fittings and an agreed payment to pharmacists for private patients’ prescriptions. Had we done that, we would only have been able to make it available to approximately half of the eligible women who had a prescription from a healthcare provider for menopause products. The other way to do it was to make it available to all women for now and cover the cost of medicines, patches and devices. After consultation within the Department, particularly with those involved in the women’s health action plan, and speaking informally to members of the National Women’s Council, the strong feedback I received was that it should be made available to everyone at least in the first instance, even if that meant people would have to pay GP costs. The pharmacists will have to make a margin from it as well, so there will be some administrative fee. In the next budget, I would like to see the scheme being brought in line with free contraception, wherein end-to-end cover is provided. Making it available to everyone while accepting that there would still be some associated GP charges was the way to proceed. The other reason for not running it like the free contraception scheme immediately was that it could take a considerable amount of time to reach agreement with the IPU and IMO on the charges. I was keen to make the scheme available as quickly as possible.

Pharmacists are asking a fair question about what their role will be, given that they will have to have a margin. Our position is that we recognise that they have to make a margin and that they are free to do so in whatever way they do currently. Let us say that a woman today buys HRT products that cost €60 per month and the pharmacist charges €70. That is the margin. Sometimes, the pharmacist may charge an administration fee. Pharmacists can continue doing this or they may all just move to charging administration fees. It is up to each pharmacist to decide.