Ms Eibhlin Mulroe:

The question regarding the transposing of the cross-border directive is probably best directed to the Department of Health. It is completely different from the treatment abroad scheme. I know Senator Burke is familiar with this, because we had an event dealing with this last year when the representatives of the Commission were over to try to get Ireland to transpose the cross-border directive. It makes a great deal of sense, from what we have talked about this morning. We have to work outside Ireland to get treatment for conditions that only one person in the country has. That person must be able to travel. We are seeing, more and more, that patients with rare conditions who need to travel, even to London, are finding it very difficult. They are waiting longer than three months. They are waiting years to get access. We would urge that rare diseases be treated in a slightly different way. The political theorist Rawls used to say that in democracies, where people are discriminated against, we need to positively discriminate in their favour. I am stealing that from Professor David Smith, who quoted it at a meeting of ours this week. We need to look at that within the context of rare diseases, within the treatment abroad scheme, and within access to treatment and care.