Healthcare Policy
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-10
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Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny

I thank the Senators for highlighting this. As I said, the Minister for Health has been working and engaging with the HSE and the Departments on this. I assure them of the importance of this for patients with DMD in Ireland. It is important for families. It affects everyone. The HSE has sole statutory responsibility for making decisions on which medicines are reimbursed. The HSE continues to process and assess pricing reimbursements in applications received from a company as efficiently as possible within the resources available to it. The application remains under consideration and the HSE cannot make any commitment or possible outcomes from the outgoing process. Meetings are going on. The latest update on the process can be found on the HSE medicines tracker and on the NCPE website.
As I outlined earlier, this Government is committed to investing in medicines. Since 2021, the HSE has approved 270 new medicines or new use of existing medicines for reimbursement. The two new framework agreements have been reached with the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association and Medicines for Ireland on the price and supply of medicines. It will make a difference. As part of these agreements, the State, MFI and IPHA have agreed to develop a future strategic partnership which will support the Department of Health in its development of a pilot early access programme focused on rare diseases in line with commitments in the programme for Government.
I was recently in Brussels and we spoke about rare diseases. As the Minister and other Ministers have said, Ireland is always open for business. Once a drug is granted marketing authorisation, we strongly encourage all pharmaceutical companies to apply for reimbursement here in Ireland and to submit fully prepared HTA dossiers in a timely fashion. That is what we need to get out there. We are always open and we want that to happen.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-10