Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

502. To ask the Minister for Health the impact the 34 new FTE staff for the medicines reimbursement system have had on reimbursement application timelines; the costs associated with creating these new positions in 2024, 2025 and projected costs for 2026; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [66867/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Department of Health, the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation and the Health Service Executive (HSE) are now in formal negotiations with the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) and with Medicines for Ireland (MFI), as part of the process to agree successor Framework Agreements on the Supply and Pricing of Medicines (FASPM).

Officials are at present, actively engaging with the pharmaceutical industry to secure the successor multiyear Framework Agreements on behalf of the State. Due to the commercially confidential nature of these negotiations the State is unable to comment on these negotiations at this time.

An independent review published in 2023 determined that Ireland’s pricing and reimbursement process operated in line with international norms.

The State values its productive partnership with the pharmaceutical industry and this is evidenced by the ongoing collaboration and the investment in new capacity in the pricing and reimbursement system last year which was a key recommendation on foot of the outcome of the Mazars Review.

This investment encompassed additional significant resourcing which was allocated for 34 additional staff across the pricing and reimbursement system. Of these 34 additional staff, 16 additional staff were recruited into the NCPE, which represented an 80% increase in staffing.

In line with the significant increase in staffing, as of August 2025, the estimated cost for 36.5 WTE within the NCPE is €3.67 million for 2025.

Given the specialised skill set required for these new roles, recruitment was a complex endeavour which only reached completion in the second half of 2024. As a result, the full impact on the speed of the assessment of new medicine applications will soon become evident.

The allocation of significant additional resourcing and staffing to the NCPE is in addition to the development and launch of a HSE medicines pricing and reimbursement tracker to enhance transparency in the pricing and reimbursement system.