Mr. Mike Glynn:

I will ask Dr. Peter Widdess-Walsh to answer the medical questions.

Most of the countries that allow generic substitution have many epilepsy specialists and neurologists. If somebody gets into trouble, he or she can be referred to one of these specialists very quickly. This cannot happen in Ireland. There are so few neurologists, let alone epilepsy specialists such as Dr. Widdess-Walsh, that it may take a very long time to gain access to one of them when in trouble. Getting somebody back on the rails can take much more time than it should and this must be remembered.

In 2011 the United Kingdom was going to allow the substitution of AEDs. I believe this is not included in the legislation.

However, they communicated with patients, people with epilepsy and epilepsy specialists. They had a listening consultation over a period of months and when they saw the case was so overwhelming, they stepped back and listened. This is what we want to do here. In respect of the United Kingdom, I note there is a proposal under the peace process that in the north west, services for both sides of the Border will be focused on Altnagelvin Hospital. In that case, someone from Lifford who gets a prescription from Altnagelvin will be in a different position to someone from Sion Mills who gets one. This would be a ludicrous situation and I note something similar happened years ago in respect of driving, when there were major problems with different legislation for epilepsy and driving. This is the position in the United Kingdom. While I do not believe it is in legislation, it is effective nonetheless that the Government there has indicated it will not allow substitution of anti-epileptic drugs, AEDs. I will now hand over to Dr. Peter Widdess-Walsh.