I thank the Deputy for raising this again. I was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet many of the people with Friedreich's ataxia whom he brought to the Dáil. I want to highlight to Deputies that, importantly, our drugs budget has increased significantly this year, being well up at 9%. This is what the Department expected it to be. We made provision in the overall budget for a 7% uplift, and we are now at a 9% increase. We will make decisions more quickly. We are working on the reimbursement process more quickly, but Deputies need to be aware of the scale of the growth of the drugs budget and where that is going. That is because of people living longer and access to drugs of very good quality. As we make decisions on reimbursement and rare diseases in a shorter period, which is a really important part of what the Deputy is talking about, we need to be aware of the very significant additional costs we are already incurring in this period of 2026. I assure the Deputy that the Department is considering every aspect of an early access scheme. We will continue to work with the Deputy on that, but I do need to flag the important budgetary consideration to all Deputies.
Sentiment score: 0.40
That is wrong.
Sentiment score: -0.48
I thank Deputy Burke for his question. It is certainly true to say that we have had enormous success with the RSV vaccination programme for infants, which significantly reduced infection, mortality and very severe illness for infants. I can confirm that we have sought a health technology assessment, HTA, for RSV immunisation by HIQA. The outcome of that will inform the policy decision that I make as to the most appropriate RSV immunisation strategy for infants but also for adults aged 65 and older. That HTA is due in the coming weeks. It is always the case with vaccinations that we take the World Health Organization's advice as well as the advice of our expert groups. We do that on an annual basis because, of course, circumstances change every year. I expect that HTA in the coming weeks and we will base our decision on that and on the intersection of the HSE's pathfinder as well.
Sentiment score: 0.17