451. Deputy Áine Collins asked the Minister for Health his views on reducing the current cap on prescription costs for seriously disabled persons from €25 to €10. [39573/15]

Prescription charges are part of a set of measures introduced by Government in recent years to reduce pharmaceutical drugs expenditure. Medical card holders are required to pay a prescription charge of €2.50 per item for medicines and other prescription items supplied to them by community pharmacists, subject to a cap of €25 per month for each person or family.

There are no plans to amend the prescription charge; however, the charge remains frozen at the level set in 2014.