Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-10
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

First of all, tá an-chuid déanta i gcoitinne ag an Rialtas chun costais a bhaineann le cúrsaí leighis a ísliú. Tá sé sin déanta againn, go háirithe ó thaobh an drugs payment scheme. Tá an tairseach i bhfad níos fearr anois ná mar a bhí sé cúpla bliain ó shin. More generally on the cost of medicine, and particularly charges and so on, this Government has, over the last number of years, significantly reduced the cost of accessing medicine. The DPS threshold in particular has come significantly down, exceeding even commitments made in various manifestoes and so forth. That needs to be acknowledged, as does the abolition of charges in hospitals and so on, so without question right across the board we have reduced costs in the healthcare area. It is without question and the Deputy just cannot get away with saying we are wilfully increasing costs all over the place as he just did. We are not. If you look over the last number of years, costs have come down in terms of State charges in respect of hospitals - acute hospitals, emergency departments - and in respect of medicine and the cost of medicine, particularly the DPS threshold and other bespoke interventions also.
More generally on cost-of-living measures, in the budget we took measures to support families who are on low incomes in particular. The ESRI's evaluation of the budget bears that out in that the two lowest deciles gained the most in respect of the budgetary allocation. Also, if you look at real wages and incomes, they are growing at approximately 3% per annum this year and we have targeted measures effectively on the cost-of-living side to support those most in need.
On phased dispensing, we will certainly look at any situation where there is potential hardship on any patient or any person in receipt of medicine, but we have to be clear-eyed as well. The Deputy mentioned pharmacies and so on. There is an issue between the HSE and pharmacies in respect of the whole area of phased dispensing, which was introduced as far back as 1996 for patient safety reasons. The supply of medication in instalments can support patients prescribed certain high-risk medications who would be at risk of medication misadventure if these medications were supplied monthly. Where a phased dispensing claim is submitted the current requirement is an item must be dispensed in the pharmacy across multiple supply occasions. Community pharmacies receive additional payments for phased dispensing. Monitored dosing systems, sometimes referred to as blister packs or compliance aids, are systems that enable the individual medicine doses to be organised according to the prescribed dose schedule. The HSE's contention is that monitored dosing systems and phased dispensing are two separate processes and that phased dispensing requires the patient to present to the pharmacy on multiple occasions in the month each week, as it would be unsafe for the patient to have the totality of their medication in one supply occasion. Monitored dosing systems are ordinarily provided in one visit and packaged to indicate when a medication should be taken. The State had never agreed to monitored dosing systems and that was the context-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-10