Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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865. To ask the Minister for Health the timeline she is working towards to initiate the review of the drug reimbursement process; the patient advocacy representation that will be on the review; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38733/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government contains a suite of measures on medicines, which we aim to progress over its lifetime. Access to medicines is the focus of a number of workstreams across my Department.

Budgets 2021-2024 allocated an additional €128 million for new drugs, which has facilitated the introduction of 219 new medicines, including 82 medicines for treating cancer and 55 orphan medicines to treat rare diseases. Budget 2025 allocated €30 million for new drugs to come from efficiencies to be identified by the HSE.

In 2023 a review of the drug reimbursement process was published. It found that the process was operating as intended and within international norms. Recommendations from the review have now been implemented. A pricing and reimbursement application tracker has been launched to improve transparency. In 2024 an additional 34 staff were recruited to enhance capacity across the pricing and reimbursement system.

Access to medicines requires industry and the State to work together, through timely assessment, and reasonable pricing with fully completed HTAs (Health Technology Assessments). The Government encourages pharmaceutical companies to submit timely applications for reimbursement.

As part of the Health Technology Assessment process within the pricing and reimbursement process, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics provides a Patient Organisation Submission process, to enable patient groups to communicate their experiences directly to the decision maker, the Health Services Executive (HSE).

The HSE Drugs Group is the national committee which the HSE has in place to make recommendations on the pricing and reimbursement of medicines. The membership of the HSE Drugs Group includes public interest members. Pharmacoeconomic reports are reviewed by the HSE Drugs Group along with the outputs of commercial negotiations, and any patient group submission(s) received. The HSE Drugs Group considers all of the evidence and makes a recommendation to the HSE Senior Leadership Team.