Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for appearing before us this morning and for their preparation. I know they have put together a lot of documentation. I thank Dr. Lambert for his work and Ms Lawless for her testimony and work with the association. Obviously, it has affected her in a very serious way over many years. It is hoped her work has been very helpful. It sounds like it has been very useful to many people in the country, so I thank her for that. After this session, we will hear from the State. The deputy chief medical officer and various professors of medicine will appear before us to talk about this.

It is a peculiar issue. Most of time when we are dealing with chronic conditions in this committee, the conversation is around treatment and support - medical and social treatment and so forth. It is rare that we have a debate about whether something actually exists. My understanding from the testimony and documentation is that it is accepted that acute or, in lay terms, short-term problems exist. It is accepted here that a person can get an infection from Lyme disease. We will get the statements later that fully accept that. They say about 300 cases present each year. They skip over the chronic, or long-term, bit. They do not differentiate, and I think we will get into that in the second session, but my understanding is that the medical community and the State recognise Lyme disease. It is a reportable incidence. About 300 such incidences are reported each year. It is recognised and treated as a short-term infection but it is not recognised and treated as a longer-term infection. Is that about right?