Budget 2025 is set to include the rollout of free Hormone Replacement Therapy and an expansion of the publicly funded IVF scheme.
This afternoon’s announcement will also include an extra €30 million in funding for new medicines.
Coalition party leaders signed off on the measures late last night ahead of a Cabinet meeting this morning.
Ministers Jack Chambers and Paschal Donohoe will announce Budget 2024 from Leinster House from 1pm this afternoon and you watch it all live while following our up-to-the-minute blog on Newstalk.com.
Free HRT
The rollout of free HRT will begin in January of next year – with the State set to fund the cost of medicines, patches and other devices such as coils.
Officials in the Department of Health believe the move could save women between €360 and €840 a year.
It comes after VAT was removed from HRT products in Budget 2023.
IVF Expansion
The Budget announcement will also include an expansion of the publicly funded IVF scheme.
Over 1,200 couples have taken advantage of the scheme since it was first introduced a year ago – and the first babies conceived through the scheme have now been born.
The Government is expanding the scheme in two areas next year.
Laboratory Fertilization Of Eggs In IVF Treatment. Image: MBI / Alamy Stock PhotoCurrently, donor-assisted IVF is not included in the scheme; however, due to changes in the law and plans to establish a new Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority (AHRRA), couples requiring donor assistance will be able to access the scheme in 2025.
Secondly, the Government aims to amend the criteria to allow couples who already have a child to apply.
Under the current rules, couples must have no living children together to apply – something that excludes couples experiencing ‘secondary infertility’.
New medicines
Budget 2025 will also include €30 million in funding for new medicines.
Officials believe the move will help deliver a range of new high-tech medicines for patients across the country.
The medicines budget now accounts for €1 in every €8 of health expenditure – and has doubled in the 10 years from 2012 to 2022.
During the lifetime of this Government, the new medicines fund has allowed the State to provide 187 new medicines to Irish patients.
Reporting from Seán Defoe, Michael Staines and James Wilson.
