David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to make a number of quick points.

First, I support the moves on MLD, the potential addition of that rare disease in the newborn baby screening programme and the treatment that will be available, and commend all of those who have advocated for it. It is a good-news story.

It is important from my perspective to commend the work that has gone into the Bill. We have a lengthy process with a lot of amendments to get through in the next few weeks. No one on this committee wants, or certainly I do not want, to hold up progress on this. While we want to get through the Bill as quickly as we can, there are issues we need to probe. I say that to advocate groups that are watching. I commend them on the work they have done. As was said, a full route to retrospective recognition has been made available and there is an urgency to get this done as quickly as possible. We all agree with that but we have a bit of work to do in the next few weeks. I hope we can get it done as quickly as possible.

It is rare for us to do this as a committee, but I commend the Minister and his officials on their work in bringing forward this Bill. As we said in the private session, the briefing we got was top class, as was the work by the officials that has gone into this. It is a difficult, challenging and complex piece of work. There is no doubt about it. When I first looked at this issue, I was struck by the difficulty in legislatively balancing all the moral and ethical issues that arose and all the different requests from different groups An appropriate balance has been struck, by and large. Having said that, we have tabled amendments and there are issues we need to work through, but I want to put on the record my appreciation of those officials especially, who I believe worked for months in a bunker putting this together. They have done a very good job. I wanted to make that point.