Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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388. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of the abolition of prescription charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2344/16]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Prescription charges are part of a set of measures introduced by Government in recent years to reduce pharmaceutical drugs expenditure. Medical card holders are required to pay a prescription charge of €2.50 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. Prescription charges do not apply to children in the care of the Health Service Executive, asylum seekers living in direct provision, or to methadone supplied to patients participating in the Methadone Treatment Scheme.

There are no plans to amend the prescription charge; however, the charge remains frozen at the level set in 2014.

The cost of abolishing prescription charges is estimated at approximately €112m, based on net prescription charge income for 2014 and adjusted for projected 2016 medical card numbers.