Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 524: To ask the Minister for Health if he will outline the restrictions and guidelines that he operates regarding the provision of homoeopathy services and practitioners' rights to make claims about the medical efficacy of their services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12274/12]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Under the Medicinal Products (Control of Placing on the Market) Regulations 2007, the Irish Medicines Board operates a registration scheme for homoeopathic medicines to ensure the quality and safety of homoeopathic medicinal products placed on the market in Ireland. Advertising of medicinal products is regulated by the Medicinal Products (Control of Advertising) Regulations 2007 and these Regulations prohibit the use of certain materials in advertisements of homoeopathic medicinal products including:

material which suggests that the effects of taking the medicinal product are guaranteed, are unaccompanied by adverse reactions or are better than, or equivalent to, those of another treatment or medicinal product; material which suggests that the health of the subject could be enhanced by taking the medicinal product;

material which refers to a recommendation by scientists, health professionals or persons who are neither of the foregoing but who, because of their celebrity status, could encourage the consumption of medicinal products;

material which suggests that the safety or efficacy of the medicinal product is due to the fact that it is natural;

material which refers in improper, alarming or misleading terms to claims of recovery.