Sir, – Can Philip Hannon (September 7th) or, indeed, some responsible Government entity, please explain how and why it is possible to purchase a suite of prescribed medicines from a pharmacy north of the Border, in my own case, for approximately one-third of the price I am obliged to pay for the same items when I purchase them from a pharmacy in Dublin?
I suspect that I might be deemed naive in the extreme were I to expect either Mr Hannon or the relevant department to venture so far as to offer an honest justification for the outrageous discrepancy which is evident from the comparative costs to which I have above alluded.
From the perspective of a pensioner on a fixed income, I can find little comfort in what I believe to be the somewhat worn and jaded smoke screen in the context of research jobs and exports that are claimed to have been created. I, for one, consider that the cost factor which I have to suffer by purchasing at Irish price levels is iniquitous and obscene. – Yours, etc,