John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I chair an ad hoc cross-party committee on rare diseases. It is not an official Oireachtas committee such as this one. I thank Ms Callis for alerting us to this issue. There is a conference on rare diseases tomorrow in Farmleigh. I do not know whether Debra Ireland is represented. I hope to be there for an hour or two in the morning. I have no doubt I speak for my colleagues when I say this meeting has been an education. If there is list of issues, please do not be shy in raising them. I took a note of the last point raised. Members, including the Cathaoirleach, would welcome it if the witnesses wrote parliamentary questions for us. We will then ask the questions. We can shake the tree that way and see what the formal answer is.

Ms Callis mentioned there are treatments on the horizon. Can she say how far away that horizon is and what those treatments might be?