Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has said he would seek additional funds for a new drug for cystic fibrosis sufferers, if it is approved by the independent agency assessing it.
Orkambi has been described as a 'game changer' for CF patients.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in the Politics, Mr Varadkar said the drug had only been licensed in the past couple of weeks, and has not yet been reimbursed by public health agencies across Europe.
"If it gets to the point where that drug gets through the process and gets approved by the NCPE [National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics] and the National Drugs Committee, then I will go to Government and seek more money to approve it," he said.
Mr Varadkar said there was hope it would become available, but it would have to be go through the independent, scientific process led by the NCPE.
It is understood Orkambi costs €160,000 per patient per annum and around 600 Irish patients would benefit from the drug.
Mr Varadkar said the additional spend allocated to health from the €665m supplementary estimate was not just to stand still.
He said €147m was being spent in new technologies and new drugs and there is "enormous, phenomenal" demand in health.
On Universal Health Insurance, he acknowledged it was "dead in the water as it was proposed in the White Paper".
"We are not proceeding with that model of health insurance, but we are still committed to universal health care, but doing that requires we build up capacity in the service."
