Sir, - The new drugs payment scheme has been presented by the Government as a valuable improvement in our health provision, yet it still leaves most of us paying up to £42 a month for drugs, and means that most people have to pay very substantially for prescriptions and GP visits, as well as VHI or BUPA, all on top of income tax.
I am a recent returnee from the UK, a non-Celtic and not-so-tigerish economy where no single prescription costs more than about £6, and where almost all health services, including GP visits, are without charge. We used to hear that Ireland was a poor country, but that is apparently no longer correct. Would it therefore be entirely unreasonable of me to suggest that Ireland is now in a position to establish a National Health Service of the kind that the UK has had for 50 years, or am I missing some obvious reason why we cannot do this? -
Yours, etc., Richard Barrett, Rathmines, Dublin 6.