Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For clarity, he should simply withdraw that paragraph. One could easily apply the same logic to the Department of Justice and Equality, which the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, said in his Supplementary Estimates speech was responsible for €52 million of extra cost last year on foot of delays in periodic payment legislation for catastrophic medical accidents. Why is the Department of Justice and Equality not being targeted in the same way? We are talking here about three or four patients, one of whom had to answer questions on this very point last week on radio. While I have not discussed the matter with him since, it appeared to be very difficult for him from what I heard on the radio. Mr. O'Brien should withdraw the statement and get back on board with whatever negotiations he is having with the drug companies. It was an extremely unfortunate thing to say. When I received the e-mail from the HSE last week announcing the provision of Soliris, which is already being provided to ten people and was just being extended to three or four others, I refused to send it on to the individuals who had been in touch with me as they would have been very hurt had they seen it. Of course, they saw it eventually. It was very unfortunate and seemed to be a spanner in the works of a good news announcement extending a drug that was already available to other patients. Mr. O'Brien needs to withdraw those comments.