Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for Health and Children further to Parliamentary Question No. 249 of 7 July 2009, if the recently introduced dispensing fee structure agreed by the Health Service Executive with pharmacists applies to drugs dispensed under the drugs payment scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5958/10]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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On 1 July last, I made regulations under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009 Act, to reduce payments to pharmacists by the Health Service Executive under the GMS and community drug schemes. The reductions applied to the Drugs Payment Scheme.

The main changes were:

A new dispensing fee structure based on a sliding scale as follows: €5 for first 20,000 items, €4.50 for next 10,000 items and €3.50 for the remaining items. This applies to items dispensed under the GMS (Medical Card), Drugs Payment Scheme and Long Term Illness Scheme.

Retail Mark-up in the Drugs Payment Scheme is reduced from 50% to 20%.

Wholesale Mark-up reduced from 17.66% to 10% of the ex-factory price of drugs.