Drug costs and organ donation
Senator Colm Burke opened a broader debate on rising drug costs and then turned to organ donation, prompting a heated exchange with Senator Daly. The Chair suspended the sitting after the argument escalated over the Government's record and a recommendation on organ donation.
In any discussion on the cost of drugs we need to look at the overall picture of what they cost in this country. Last year drugs and pharmaceuticals cost us €2.6 billion. That figure has consistently gone up. Despite making agreements with pharmaceutical companies on lowering the cost of drugs, we are still spending more per capita than any other country. Senator Mark Daly was going on about no action being taken. I think he must have forgotten that his party was in power for 14 years. On the issue of transplants, there was a recommendation-----
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There was an organ donor recommendation that was signed the last day.
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It has been described as costing people's lives.
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If the Senator wants to go on about organ donation, he must start with himself.
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To return to the drugs issue, it is important that we have an honest debate on it. We are paying out €2.6 billion on drugs and pharmaceuticals per annum. In the period from 2000 to 2010, the cost of pharmaceuticals went from €570 million to over €2 billion. It was as though we were writing blank cheques. If we want to have a debate on this issue, let us have an overall debate about why it is costing more per head of population for drugs and pharmaceuticals than in any other European country.
On the organ donation issue, we need to compare Ireland with Norway. There are about 2,000 people on dialysis in this country. There are only about 370 people on dialysis in Norway at any one time. That is because of the policy it implemented in the late 1990s and early 2000s of employing the necessary number of consultants. We can talk about organ donation all day but we have to have the necessary people there to do the work. That is where the fundamental problem arose in the last 15 years. We have not been able to recruit the people. We deliberately missed out. When we had money to do it, we did not recruit them between 2000 and 2010 and that is on what we now need to focus. If we want to bring down the number of people on dialysis, we need the experts to do the work. That is what should be the priority. Let us have a debate on that and on the cost of pharmaceuticals in this country.