Ms Nicola Perry:

Mr. Murphy made one of the points I was going to make about travel and work. In our experience, having talked to people, a couple of issues make it a challenge. This disease has the potential to make people so ill and to be such a burden on the healthcare system in the long term, yet it can be cured relatively easily. Nevertheless, if someone needs to travel long distances, that will affect his or her job, and if he or she is not working, he or she may not have the money to undertake the travel.

I can think of some real-life examples. One woman who had two children under five years of age could not attend the hospital appointment because she did not have anyone to take them and there was no way she could bring them to Limerick from Dublin and back. Another factor is that even if the person has money or does not have an issue with work, particularly for people who may have historically contracted the virus, he or she may experience discrimination or possible stigma about it. How can such people explain to people where they are, where they are going or what the treatment is for if the individuals in their lives at that point are not aware of some aspect of their history or background? It is not the same as getting a diagnosis of something that does not come along with any value judgments, such as becoming diabetic. It has additional factors, as well as the medical ones, that should be considered.