I am not sure if the Taoiseach saw the "Prime Time" special recently in relation to rare diseases and patients' inability to access much-needed drugs. I know the Taoiseach is very familiar with the topic as he previously served as the Minister for Health. I want to bring up this issue again because we have given a commitment in the programme for Government that we will reform the reimbursement process. We really need to start that body of work now. If the Taoiseach had watched the programme, he would have seen Emily Felix and other people with Friedreich’s ataxia. Craig Coady from Cork, whose child suffers from the same condition, has lost a child already and his wife is seriously ill. On that programme, Professor Michael Barry indicated that the reason pharmaceutical companies do not want to come here to reimburse drugs is because they do not make enough money. That might be true in some cases, but it belies the fact that the majority of them do not come here because it is too much hassle to go through a health technology assessment. The review I am asking for would at least review that process and, hopefully, streamline it so we can get more effective and efficient decisions in future.

Sentiment score: 0.05

We have a budget process that we are all heading into at the moment, and we need funding for rare diseases and new drugs to be included as part of this budget.

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