Professor Michael Barry:

That is so, but I can only reply for NCPE and the rare diseases group and I hope to try to do so. We have made many developments in regard to patient involvement with the health technology assessment, HTA, process. There is a patient area on the website through which one can get a summary of the process and submit online. There is also information in regard to interpreting our recommendations and a plain English explanation of them. We hold educational sessions with groups such as the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry, IPPOSI. We are quite active in the area of patient engagement. Using the website, people email us on a regular basis with all sorts of questions which we are very happy to answer within 24 hours.

On the rare diseases technology review committee, Deputy O'Reilly mentioned Scotland. I agree that the Scottish system is a good model, but £1 million sterling was invested in it. We can improve things. We have been up and running for less than two months, so it is early days, but I would like to think that patient groups and representatives are seeing how this group will make a difference. I agree that it would be nice to have our publications and timelines on the website as well. We do not currently have a website. It would be nice to have that in order that people would know the stage at which a particular drug is and what are our recommendations. That is a great suggestion and certainly something that we should consider.

Are there any other points to be addressed?