Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for attending. I have received a letter from a constituent on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry who believes she contracted Lyme disease when hiking in Killarney National Park. Kerry is one of the counties identified as high risk in that regard. The experience of the person in question has been absolutely appalling. Despite undergoing numerous tests in Ireland, she was misdiagnosed as having many conditions. When she travelled to Germany for further tests her condition was finally correctly diagnosed. Because the correct diagnosis was so late in coming she is not in as good a condition as she could have been. Her family have had to sell the family home to meet the cost of tests and treatment. Their lives have been ruined and she can no longer work because of her medical condition. She is at her wit's end at this stage and hugely concerned about the failure to acknowledge huge flaws in our testing system and the negative attitude to diagnoses of Lyme disease. She has asked me to put a number of questions to the delegates.

Why are patients who test positive for Lyme disease in other EU countries not given access to treatment in Ireland? While I acknowledge that that question was answered earlier, I would welcome elaboration on the response, including the reason in 60% of cases the disease is not detected and why, following testing, many patients are diagnosed with other conditions. Is it the case that people are being tested numerous times until there is a negative result, despite the initial result being positive? Has any progress been made since this matter was last discussed here in the setting up of the proposed sub-committee and inclusion of sufferers of Lyme disease in it? As I said, according to my constituent, the culture here appears to be not to try to accommodate people.