Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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618. To ask the Minister for Health if there is legislation in place to stop a pharmacy absorbing the cost of the prescription charge instead of passing it on to customers. [54256/13]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Medical card holders are required to pay a €2.50 charge per item for medicines and other prescription items supplied to them by community pharmacists, subject to a cap of €25 per month for each person or family with effect from 1 December 2013. Prescription charges do not apply to children in the care of the HSE or to methadone supplied to patients participating in the Methadone Treatment Scheme.

If a medical card holder takes a prescription to the pharmacist, the pharmacist is obliged by the provisions of section 59 (as amended by section 1 of the Health (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2010) of the Health Act 1970 to charge that person €2.50 for each item dispensed. The charge collected will be retained by the pharmacist and payments made to the pharmacist by the HSE will be reduced by an equivalent amount. Therefore, it is a matter for individual pharmacies to decide whether or not they want to absorb the prescription charge.