That this Assembly calls upon the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to establish a cost and benefit review for the purpose of abolishing health prescription charges as has been carried out in Wales.

I am delighted that the hon Member for Strangford Kieran McCarthy supports the inclusion of the amendment proposed by my hon Friend Tom Buchanan. The issue of prescription charges is an important one for the Assembly to debate. Our counterparts in the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales have also considered the matter. Wales has abolished prescription charges for everyone; Scotland has been more circumspect.

Although free prescriptions are a fine idea in principle, the prospect raises other significant issues that must be fully considered before a decision can be reached. From where would the extra funding be found? What other services might suffer as a result? Access to expensive but effective new drugs, which is already very limited, could be reduced further.

The current exemption list should be reviewed, as it disadvantages those with certain lifelong or terminal illnesses who depend on regular medication. For example, patients who receive free prescriptions for diabetes may also benefit from free prescriptions for other ailments. Some may ask whether that is necessarily fair. Those patients can avail themselves of an all-round free prescription service while others with life-limiting cystic fibrosis cannot access free prescriptions for anything. A review of the current list of exemptions should be carried out, and I am delighted that the Minister has announced one this afternoon.

Initiatives to control the number of prescriptions being issued should also be investigated, so that the service is not taken advantage of or misused in any way. We do not want to reach a position in which over-the-counter drugs that are already available are sidelined in favour of free prescriptions. The sale of over-the-counter medications must be monitored. GPs will also need to monitor whether patient demand for free prescriptions increases. How will GPs react if that occurs? Those patients and families who are living with terminal or lifelong illnesses should be considered.

Free prescriptions already benefit many groups of people, such as those on low incomes and women during and after pregnancy. There is clearly an argument that those who can afford medicines and are not dependent on prescriptions should not necessarily be exempt. We also need to calculate the likely amount of drugs that would be wasted if all prescriptions were to be free of charge, and, again, how that might be monitored. If people no longer value their medications, compliance will suffer and more money will be wasted.

It seems reasonable that patients who are subject to compulsory treatment orders should not be expected to pay for their medication. That should be a ground for exemption in any new list of conditions.

In considering the shape of a further list of conditions, it is widely felt that all patients who are terminally ill or have lifelong conditions should be exempt from paying prescription charges. It is felt that many other specific conditions should be included on any new list. Among those most commonly mentioned are cystic fibrosis, cancer, asthma and mental illnesses.

I am pleased to support the motion and the amendment.