Mr. Eugene Lennon:

We must consider cost. Part of the work of the expert group will be to assess how many patients might avail of the treatment. It is hard to get a handle on the cost. Products are available in certain countries and it is a little difficult to find out the exact cost for a particular condition. We have not made a decision about cost or reimbursement.

As has been said, normally a company comes along with an authorised medicine and it applies for its product to be reimbursed. That is generally how things work. In this situation, it is a little difficult. Companies approach us asking for their product to be reimbursed but we do not have information on how much they normally charge for their product in differing markets. Whatever products are used we want to have ones that are standard quality controlled products. Therefore, we will have to go to legitimate producers that operate in other markets under some sort of authority.

We will have to revert to the Deputy on the reimbursement question at a later date.