My Department is aware of the stress that shortages of medicines can cause for patients and healthcare professionals alike, and mitigating medicine shortages and strengthening security of supply is the subject of several workstreams in my Department, the wider health service and across Europe.
Medicine shortages are a feature of modern health systems worldwide which have been exacerbated by recent worldwide events. It is a global health problem, not unique to Ireland, and increases in demand for medications and medicines shortages have been observed in the UK, throughout the EU and across the world in recent months, and there is no evidence that shortages disproportionately impact patients in Ireland compared to other countries.
To address these challenges in Ireland, a Medicines Shortages Framework, operated by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) on behalf of the Department of Health, has been established. This aims to help prevent potential shortages from occurring and to reduce the impact of shortages on patients by co-ordinating the management of potential or actual shortages across the health service as they arise. The HPRA maintains a list of current and resolved shortages on its website. The webpage is updated daily as the HPRA receives new information. As at 18 February 2026 415 notified medicines shortages were listed on the HPRA medicine shortages page: www.hpra.ie/find-a-medicine/for-human-use/medicine-shortages?data=eyJpZCI6bnVsbCwic2tpcCI6MCwidGFrZSI6MjUsInF1ZXJ5IjpudWxsLCJvcmRlciI6InByb2R1Y3RuYW1lIiwiZmlsdGVyIjoiQWxsIn0%3D
Within my Department a number of working groups have been established to specifically deal with medicine shortages. The Medicines Criticality Assessment Group (MCAG) is a collaborative working group of relevant government, regulatory and healthcare agency bodies that is convened by the Department of Health and chaired by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to facilitate ad hoc rapid assembly of nominated representatives to assess and address emerging human medicinal product (prescription and non-prescription) supply issues. MCAG was established in 2018 as part of a whole of government response to Brexit and has since evolved to its current form.
Following notification of a supply issue from a relevant health service stakeholder (DOH, HSE, HPRA and/or PSI) that is requiring more extensive and more immediate cross health-service input and is considered necessary to effectively prevent and/or mitigate a high impact supply issue, the Secretariat liaises with the Chair of the Group to convene an MCAG. This group will assist in the development of clinical guidance for mitigation of impact of specific medicinal product supply issues, as necessary, and where appropriate to do so. This workstream will be led by relevant HSE clinical personnel who will hold responsibility for final output.
