180. Deputy Robert Dowds asked the Minister for Health the rationale for the €2.50 charge for the acquisition of medicine for those with a medical card. [41963/15]

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. Prescription charges do not apply to children in the care of the Health Service Executive, asylum seekers living in direct provision, or to methadone supplied to patients participating in the Methadone Treatment Scheme.