Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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164. To ask the Minister for Health his proposals on the abolition of medical card prescription charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8977/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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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.