Mr. Joe Ryan:

I might respond to a couple of those points. With regard to the diagnosis and the consultant not sharing the data with an advocate, the Deputy referred to public representatives. As Deputies and Senators are covered under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act, a consultant should be in a position to seek those data once the permission of the patient has been given to that particular person. We would be more than happy to deal with any specific incidents on a case-by-case basis as they arise.

In terms of responding sympathetically, we try to be sympathetic with everybody. That is part of the way in which we are trying to drive the culture of the HSE. Part of the transformation of the health services is about ensuring that we have a caring and considerate approach to everybody. When we fail in that, we are particularly keen to know about that and to try to address it. Everybody in the HSE goes to work every day with the best of intentions to give the best service they possibly can to the patients and citizens of the country.

In terms of new and orphan drugs, in the letter of determination in the service plan this year we have €50 million allocated for new drugs. So far this year, in the order of 25 to 28 new drugs have been approved and there are more to be considered. There is a long list of new drugs that are always coming up and we have to assess them rigorously for all the elements of value in terms of their efficacy and the cost. We have to strike that balance. We have processes in place and we have our drugs group, as well as Dr. Barry and his team, who assist us in assessing all new drugs.

With regard to the orthodontic treatment, I ask Dr. Green to give a short response on that.