Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the opening statements and for being here today. I have to agree with them. Neurological services were in crisis pre-pandemic but listening to the figure of 24,000 people waiting for neurological appointments now, it is fair to say that we are approaching an emergency situation, if we are not in an emergency already.

I am not a member of the committee and I thank the Chair for allowing me to come in to address the witnesses. As they know, I have met both of them before. I have a personal interest in neurological conditions, having been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 15 years ago. Listening to Deputy Cathal Crowe, I am reminded of the years prior to being diagnosed and not being treated. From the point of contact when I went to my GP to when I got my diagnosis, there was a seven-year gap, which is a frightening place for any young man to be - I was 25 years old at the time. I am in the public system and while I can only speak for my own experience, it is that the services available to me have been scant. I have had four appointments with my neurologist in the 15 years since I have been diagnosed. I have had two MRI scans, the first in 2007 and the next in 2018, and I was on a waiting list for all of that time. I would have been getting letters from the HSE to ask whether I still wish to have the appointment and I was sending every letter back to say that, yes, I still wish to have the appointment. When I got my appointment in 2018 for my second MRI scan, they could not find the records of my first one because the HSE had changed its administration.

They could not tell in a neurological sense whether the multiple sclerosis had progressed. I have been on a waiting list to get my next follow-up MRI scan to see if it has progressed since 2018. That is my experience. I do not know if it has deteriorated in a neurological sense. I can only say in a physical sense for myself that I have not felt physically or mentally better in a long time. I have to say that.

My situation within the public service is not unique, however. It is an indication of the systemic failures in the system through years of underinvestment in neurology services. When we see figures showing that 24,000 patients are waiting for an appointment, it is really quite stark and frightening.

I wish to put on the record a word of thanks to MS Ireland for the support I got at the very start when I was first diagnosed. As a young person, being diagnosed with a neurological condition can be a really frightening place, especially for the young man I was then. I did not have the ability to articulate how I was feeling. I did not know how to express that I was frightened for my own and my family's future. I kind of started to isolate. I was suffering with depression because of the diagnosis but I did not know I was, which is a really frightening place to be.

The support I received from MS Ireland, which does not get talked about too much, was with regard to counselling. I gained an acceptance that I have multiple sclerosis. That was my first step forward to a way of dealing with this. It does not define me. At the time, it did, but it does not define me anymore. It has given me the ability to look at things in a different way. I kind of take life on life's terms now. I do not think, for example, that I would be here unless I got that diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, believe it or not. I was already involved with community activism but I probably would not have taken the chances I took by going to college and other stuff I have done over the years because of the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and because I changed my thinking around it.

I always say to anybody who has been recently diagnosed and who might be listening today that it is not the end of the world. It is absolutely not the end of the world. Some of the advice I have given people and talked about a few times is to not do what I did at the start. Do not ask Dr. Google because Dr. Google will lead you down a bad path to a very dark place where you cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. That is where I was. People should take a chance and talk about their feelings because feelings never hurt anybody. They should just talk about them and if they have the opportunity to get a bit of professional help with regard to talking about their feelings, they should do that as well. Those are two bits of practical advice that I found really helped me.

That is enough about me; I will ask some questions. I have an interest in long Covid especially. I had Covid and had symptoms for approximately five months afterwards. Thank God they have cleared now. We know Covid is a new virus and we are still finding out what it is about. What early indications have the witnesses seen on the effect long Covid has on neurological conditions but also, as they mentioned already, on neurological services? Is there a plan for us to address that at the moment?