The State’s medicines bill is twice the defence budget and has to be “managed and reasonable”, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said. And a health economist has warned that paying high prices for medicines “does more harm than good”, when other care loses out. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said: “Our drugs budget generally is very large. Other budgets, such as the €11bn a year for education, “contextualise” the medicines spend, she said. Spending on medicines versus other healthcareRonan Mahon, health economist and lecturer at the University of Galway, raised questions about the value of medicines over other healthcare.

Source: Irish Examiner January 11, 2026 19:10 UTC