Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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1274. To ask the Minister for Health when the free hormone replacement therapy scheme announced under budget 2025 will come into effect; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3292/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Menopause is an important health and wellbeing issue which has been prioritised as part of the Government’s commitment to improved women’s health outcomes.

Much important work has been done in this area, driven by the Women’s Health Taskforce and the Women’s Health Action Plans, launched in 2022 and 2024.

The new Programme for Government: Securing Ireland’s Future continues to emphasise this important commitment to improving women’s health outcomes and experiences. The new HRT measure represents another step to widen access to menopause related treatments and services and follows on from all the other developments that have taken place over several years.

Budget 2025 announced the intention to fund the medicine cost of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) products prescribed to a woman to help manage the symptoms associated with all stages of menopause.

On Tuesday, 5th November the Health Insurance (Amendment) and Health (Provision of Menopause Products) Bill 2024 passed all stages in the Oireachtas and was subsequently signed into law.

This legislation means that where a woman has been prescribed a Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) product by her healthcare provider to alleviate the symptoms associated with all stages of menopause, the cost of the HRT medications or products will be met by the State.

For the purpose of this measure, menopause means, in relation to a woman, the various stages for the treatment of menopause symptoms and includes perimenopause, post menopause, early menopause, premature menopause and medically induced menopause.

This measure will cover any HRT medications and products which are currently reimbursable by the HSE, which have been prescribed for the purposes of alleviating the symptoms of menopause. The cost of GP consultation fees and pharmacy dispensing fees are not included in the measure.

The Department of Health engaged with both the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Irish Pharmacy Union in relation to the practical rollout of this measure.

The Department of Health is working to introduce this measure as soon as possible.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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1275. To ask the Minister for Health if her Department has been made aware of any shortages of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products which are due to be included in the free HRT scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3293/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Dear Deputy

The Department is aware of the stress that shortages of medicines can cause for patients and healthcare professionals alike, thusly managing and mitigating medicine shortages is the subject of several workstreams across the Department and wider health service.

Ireland has a multi-stakeholder Medicines Shortages Framework in place, operated by our medicines regulator, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) on behalf of the Department of Health. The framework aims to help prevent potential shortages from occurring and to reduce the impact of shortages on patients by coordinating the management of potential or actual shortages as they arise.

The HPRA is aware of current shortages of the following HRT medicines:

• Sandoz Pharmaceuticals d.d., the company responsible for supplying Estradot, has notified the HPRA of a shortage of Estradot 37.5 micrograms / 24 hours, 50 micrograms / 24 hours, 75 micrograms / 24 hours, and 100 micrograms / 24 hours transdermal patches.
• The shortages of all of the above presentations of Estradot, except for Estradot 75micrograms/ 24 hours, are expected to be resolved on 10th February.
• Theramex Ireland Limited, the company responsible for supplying Evorel, has notified the HPRA of a shortage of Evorel 50 micrograms/24 hours transdermal patches due to an unexpected increase in demand. This shortage is expected to resolve on 15th February.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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1276. To ask the Minister for Health what preparations have been made to roll out the free hormone replacement therapy scheme, as outlined in Budget 2025. [3302/25]