Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 24 Mar 1994

Vol. 440 No. 6

Written Answers. - Refund of Drugs Scheme.

Noel Ahern

Question:

110 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Health his views on the refund of expenditure on prescribed drugs scheme as operated by his Department on the basis of a refund of expenditure over £90 per quarter and which is being interpreted by the Eastern Health Board as a refund on drugs used in the quarter; his views on the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 9 whose expenditure two days before the end of the quarter was disallowed as the drugs or most of them, could not be used in the quarter.

Minister for Health (Mr. Howlin)

The refund of drugs scheme provides for a refund of expenditure above £90 in respect of medicines purchased for consumption in any calendar quarter. If a person purchases drugs or medicines at the end of a calendar quarter, such drugs or medicines would not normally be intended for consumption within that quarter. In these circumstances the health board will consider such expenditure for refund purposes in the following quarter in which the medicine is intended for consumption.