Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 February 2019
397. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health if Ireland's full participation in the four pillars of the BeNeLuxA collaboration, including information sharing, horizon scanning, joint assessment and joint pricing and reimbursement, will require amendments to existing national legislation or statutory instruments. [8125/19]
View answerOn the 22 June 2018, I signed the Beneluxa Initiative on Pharmaceutical Policy to work with Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The BeNeLuxA collaboration was established in 2015, with a view to taking a collective approach to pharmaceutical procurement and evaluation. Four areas of collaboration has been identified: horizon scanning, health technology assessment, information sharing and policy exchange and joint price negotiations.
Members can determine the scope of their voluntary participation in each of the domain areas. It is envisaged that Ireland will over time become involved in all areas of collaboration.
There is ongoing collaborative work between officials from my Department and national experts from other member countries across the different Domain Task Forces to establish the legislative framework underpinning each administration's pricing and reimbursement system. All member countries have different legislative frameworks and there is an acceptance that cooperation has to conform with the legislation that exists, pending any statutory change that may be brought forward by respective administrations.
