Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 179: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views that a reduction of 34% to pharmacists is fair and proportionate; her plans to negotiate this with pharmacists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28873/09]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 180: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will negotiate with pharmacists to try and prevent their withdrawal from the community drugs scheme from 1 August 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28821/09]

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 181: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her contingency plans in the event of a withdrawal of pharmacists from the community drugs scheme from 1 August 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28921/09]

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 182: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her plans negotiate with pharmacists to try to prevent their withdrawal from the community drugs scheme from 1 August 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28922/09]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 183: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the contingency plans she has put in place in the event of a withdrawal of pharmacists from the community drugs scheme from 1 August 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28820/09]

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 185: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the contingency plans to deal with the situation in which pharmacies have given notice of terminating services from 1 August 2009; if her attention has been drawn to the concern of the general public in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28122/09]

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 202: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the plans she has put in place following the withdrawal of pharmacists contracts with the Health Service Executive which will affect medical card patients and many others using the drug payments scheme; her plans and those of the Health Service Executive to ensure the continued supply of medication to patients; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28216/09]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 203: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the action taken by Health Service Executive on payments to pharmacists; if an assessment has been completed on the impact that this will have in smaller towns; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28254/09]

Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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Question 210: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the position regarding reducing margins given to pharmacists, provided for under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009, taking into account pharmacists' plans to discontinue providing services if the plans proceed; her plans to rescind this issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28302/09]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 227: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on whether the reduction of 34% to pharmacists is fair and proportionate; her plans to negotiate same with pharmacists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28435/09]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 233: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the contingency plans she has in place in the event of a withdrawal of pharmacists from the community drugs scheme from 1 August 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28475/09]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 234: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will negotiate with pharmacists to prevent their withdrawal from the community drugs scheme from 1 August 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28476/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 179 to 183, inclusive, 185, 202, 203, 210, 227, 233 and 234 together.

I am aware that a number of community pharmacists have indicated that they may withdraw from participation in the GMS and community drugs schemes in the light of my decision to reduce certain payments under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has written to all 1,600 community pharmacy contractors to clarify whether they intend to continue the provision of services under the GMS and community drugs schemes.

A contingency plan is being put in place by the HSE, and will be implemented if required, to ensure that supplies of medicines to patients under the GMS and community drugs schemes will continue in the event of discontinuation of services by community pharmacists.

I believe that threats of withdrawal from the community pharmacy contract are unjustified and not in patients' interests. There can be no grounds for causing upset or anxiety about the supply of prescriptions to patients.

The decisions I have made on the reduction in payments to community pharmacists under the Act will reduce their income from the Health Service Executive (HSE) by €133m in a full year, from a total of approximately €550m. This is a reduction of 24% and not 34% as representatives of the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) have claimed. My decisions followed a public consultation process conducted under that Act. All interested stakeholders were invited to make submissions on the matter. The IPU made both a written and an oral submission to my Department. In addition, 104 other written submissions were received largely from community pharmacists. These submissions were analysed and considered before I made my decision to reduce payments.

Reductions are absolutely necessary for two reasons. Firstly, the cost of the community drugs schemes has doubled since 2002 to over €1.6 billion in 2008: and fees and other income earned by pharmacists have doubled accordingly. Secondly, it cost an exorbitant €640 million to get €1 billion of drugs from the factory gate to the patient in the community in 2008. This level of expenditure on delivery and dispensing is no longer sustainable, given the current financial circumstances of the country and the other priorities for spending in the health sector.

Savings from the measures have been estimated at €55 million for the remainder of this year and €133 million on a full year basis. This is almost exactly what would have been saved if I had imposed an across the board 8% reduction in fees and retail mark-ups and re-imposed the reduction in wholesale mark-up to 8%, as attempted by the HSE last year. However, I have decided to achieve broadly the same level of reduction through a revised common fee structure for dispensing, a reduced retail mark-up, removal of the special payment for over-70s dispensing and reduction in the wholesale mark-up to 10%.

In its submissions, the IPU indicated that it was prepared to consider yielding savings in an amount equivalent to 8% of dispensing fees only, which it calculated would save €21m in a full year. This would imply that their earnings from the HSE were just €260m in 2008. However, this is far from the case. In addition to dispensing fees, pharmacists also received a retail mark-up of 50% on items dispensed under the Drug Payments and Long Term Illness Schemes and special payments in respect of dispensing to persons aged 70 years and over. These payments brought their income from the HSE in 2008 to €440m. In addition pharmacists have benefitted from approximately half the €200m value of the wholesale margin. For the reasons outlined earlier, savings of €21m as proposed by the IPU would not have been an adequate response to the financial problems that we face in the pharmacy sector.

The IPU also suggested that savings of €30m could be obtained through generic substitution and €33.7m through a combination of changes in the High Tech Scheme, implementation of the Barry Report and the IPHA agreement. These are matters that are being pursued by my Department and the HSE. Any savings that arise under these headings will be additional to, and not a substitution for, the reductions in payments to pharmacists that I have announced.