I recall in the Dáil about a decade ago when Leo Varadkar was the Minister for Health. He said that he would almost become a socialist when it comes to the issue of the drug companies and the health industry. It did not quite work, obviously. Here we are again asking why it is taking so long for drugs to be approved in this country. These are drugs that we know are having life-saving impacts. We are a small country so, in some ways, a rare disease in a small country is even more difficult. Cystic fibrosis is very common in Ireland, yet that took ages as well. I echo the calls for the treatments for Friedreich's ataxia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, DMD, to be approved as quickly as possible. I spoke on that issue a year ago in the Dáil. Families are going through heartbreak. DMD in particular is a progressive disease. I read that givinostat has now been approved. I am asking the Minister of State to ensure that this is moved as quickly as possible so that givinostat benefits as many as possible. I want to mention a case that was brought to my attention of a young woman, called Debbie, who has been diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour, a WHO grade 4 glioblastoma. As the House can imagine, she has undergone extensive neurosurgery removing huge parts of her brain, as well as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The problem is this. There is a revolutionary second-line treatment available called dendritic cell therapy, DCT, available in Germany. It has been overwhelmingly positive in its results in the first few years at trial stage. Debbie has comprehensive health insurance but this therapy is not available on VHI anyway. It should be available to all, of course, but I just cite the fact that insurance companies are not providing insurance cover for many conditions. This results in families having to do GoFundMe to raise money to go abroad, all when people are in such dire health situations. The family in question have done so and have had to raise huge amounts of money. This is treatment inequality. Cutting-edge treatments like DCT are available in other European countries but are not available in Ireland despite the fact that a lot of the pharmaceuticals in question are manufactured in this country up the road from where I live. There are also health insurance barriers and systemic delays. Even basic administrative requirements such as requesting medical records to go to another country add up with regard to people's life expectancy and quality of life. The system is failing people like Debbie and we need to act to make that treatment available.

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