Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

They are already adopted but they will not be pro formaapproved until next May. What happens then? Ireland fed into the process and I have seen this in parliamentary questions and answers from the Minister, most recently last week, where it says we are at the beginning of the process and it will not be agreed until next May. They will be rubber-stamped next May. All of the negotiations have gone on, with Ireland in the middle with all the other countries, and these codes have been agreed. They will not change and will be rubber-stamped next May. Dr. Glynn said they do not provide any guidelines, but I assume the WHO codes count for something and, on the back of those, organisations like the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, or the Department, or the Infectious Disease Society of America and everybody else may then come up with new guidelines in line with the new codes. Those codes seem to have been pulled together based on validated science rather than members of the public sending in a view that a certain chronic disease or illness exists.