{"id":240592,"date":"2026-01-12T05:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T05:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240592\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T05:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T05:48:09","slug":"states-medicines-bill-is-double-what-we-spend-on-defence-health-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240592\/","title":{"rendered":"State’s medicines bill is double what we spend on defence \u2013 health minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

And a health economist has warned that paying high prices for medicines \u201cdoes more harm than good\u201d, when other care loses out.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill<\/a> said: \u201cOur drugs budget generally is very large. And I\u2019m not sure people realise how big it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at \u20ac3bn to \u20ac4bn this year, just to be spent on drugs in hospitals and be provided to GMS patients [medical card].\u201d<\/p>\n

This includes the drug-payment scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole Department of Justice budget is about \u20ac6bn for everything,\u201d Ms Carroll MacNeill said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Everything to do with defence in Ireland is \u20ac1.5bn, and we spend twice that just on medicine.\n <\/p>\n

Other budgets, such as the \u20ac11bn a year for education, \u201ccontextualise\u201d the medicines spend, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be a measure of assessment and control around that budget. It isn\u2019t automatically unlimited; it could double to \u20ac6bn tomorrow, if that were the case,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to be managed and reasonable about that over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Costs are \u201conly going in one direction\u201d, she said, referring to new drugs as factors.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you have to ask, at the most macro level, as a proportion of public spending, how big that should be in any economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Spending on medicines versus other healthcare\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ronan Mahon, health economist and lecturer at the University of Galway, raised questions about the value of medicines over other healthcare.<\/p>\n

Mr Mahon pointed to vital talks on pricing, between the HSE and the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, over the next four years.<\/p>\n

Those cover costs, access to new medicines for public patients, and other issues. He said:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Research in Ireland indicates that the health benefit gained from branded pharmaceuticals is likely far less than the health benefit we would typically expect to gain if we spent that money on other programmes of care.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, it would likely better serve Irish patients to spend this money elsewhere in the healthcare system. A speedier process, yes, but the new agreement must also lower prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, it emerged that Britain\u2019s NHS will pay 25% more for new medicines over time. This, Mr Mahon said, is \u201cwidely seen as a response to threats from the pharma industry to withdraw manufacturing and research investment\u201d, as well as Donald Trump\u2019s comments around trade tariffs.<\/p>\n

Ireland, especially Cork, also relies heavily on pharmaceutical manufacturing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Irish Government has already shown a willingness to bow to pharma industry pressure, when it changed its position on proposed EU legislation that sought to achieve more equitable access to medicines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pharma sector lobbying<\/p>\n

\u201cRegarding both the EU legislation and the current pricing negotiations, pharma industry lobbying tactics have included subtle and not-so-subtle threats that the manufacturing presence in Ireland will be negatively impacted if the Irish authorities do not support industry positions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

These threats from pharma, he added, are \u201cegregious and probably somewhat of a bluff\u201d.<\/p>\n

Overall, he called for prices to continue receiving robust analysis, saying: \u201cIf Ireland Inc calculates that we must continue to pay a premium for new drugs in order to protect pharma manufacturing in Ireland, we must do so in the full knowledge that paying such high prices does more harm than good to population health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And a health economist has warned that paying high prices for medicines \u201cdoes more harm than good\u201d, when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[45775,103,397,396,61,60,8877],"class_list":{"0":"post-240592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-government-spending","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-pharma"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}