Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Horan very much and welcome her. Having listened to her presentation, I believe it is very clear why the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, decided to appoint her. For any job that is applied for now, we must have the right person, and sometimes the right person comes from another background or has previous experience in other areas and on boards of companies and so on. Sometimes we frown on that because we believe it is just the old thing again of appointing people to boards. If someone is the right person, I do not see why he or she should not have the opportunity to apply for a position, even if he or she has been on boards before, so I am not one of these people who jump up and down about people being appointed. As long as the appointee is the right person in the right place and he or she has the right qualifications, that is all that matters to me. I was very interested by Ms Horan's statement that she decided not to take a full-time position but one serious part-time challenge instead, namely chairperson of the HPRA. We need people like Ms Horan who want to dedicate themselves to doing a particular job at a particular time to the best of their ability, and the fact that she has been a board member of the HPRA is an added bonus for us all.

Senator van Turnhout already alluded to drugs that are available online and come through different sources, as well as various kinds of medication that are promoted not through the medical end of things but through different channels. That was one of the points I wanted to raise, particularly in light of the events of the last few days, when five young people ended up seriously ill in a hospital after taking legal highs. Deputy Ó Caoláin also mentioned the DePuy hip replacements and PIP breast implants. One serious issue I have seen in the last few weeks is the drug trial in France, in which people were prescribed a particular drug on a trial basis, and many of their lives are now changed forever. I am not sure whether monitoring such things is part of Ms Horan's role or that of her organisation. It could be; I am still reading through the pages. However, I believe we need regulatory boards and people who are prepared to stand up and challenge people when they make statements about certain medications brought onto the market that are not fit for human consumption. That must be very much part of the HPRA's role as well.

I do not always agree with Senator Crown but I totally agree with him on vaccination. I have two young girls who have both been vaccinated against cervical cancer. Unfortunately, in all walks of life - we only have to think back to when we had our children vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella, and other diseases, when they were small - any drug or injection can have side effects, and for some people those effects can be very detrimental, as we have seen in France.

I wish Ms Horan well in her job. She has a huge role to play in the future of this country and in being able to limit people who are promoting certain alternative medicines. I am not knocking alternative medicine, but some alternative medicines lead people into very dangerous areas. I hope the HPRA can do something about legal highs, particularly for young people. I heard a lovely doctor this morning on the radio - I believe he was from Cork but I cannot remember - speaking about the young people who have been seriously affected in the last two days by taking legal highs and about education. Even with education, it is not enough to do it in schools. As parents and grandparents, we need to be always giving our children advice on the dos and don'ts and the rights and wrongs of taking any kind of medication. This is probably not in her field, but I wish Ms Horan well in her forthcoming position and I believe that Deputy Lynch has been very studious in designating her.