Varadkar: Prescription fee 'too high'
Health Minister Leo Varadkar says prescription charges are too high and a new scheme is needed.
The Minister was speaking at MacGill Summer School on ways to overhaul the health service under the next Government - including introducing Free GP Care for the Under 18s, and refunded GP and dentist visits.
He says negotiations have begun on a new contract to buy medicines.
Minister Varadkar says he wants to bring the cost down.
He said: "It's €144 per month per household and that is very iniquitous, particularly on single-person households where the €144 has to be borne by that one person.
"We also have a prescription fee of €2.50 which I think is too high.
"I saw the sense in the 50c one, but €2.50 has got to a point where it's putting some people off filling up their prescriptions at all, which is a major worry of mine."
