Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)

I very much thank the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, Rare Diseases Ireland and Professor Postma for attending. I pay tribute to the work of Rare Diseases Ireland. I know many other groups have been campaigning in this space for many years. It is absolutely heartbreaking when people come to me to tell me they may have to travel to the North, Britain or further afield to access medicines they cannot access here. There are obviously a multitude of issues with regard to the application process and processing time. The blatantly obvious thing is Ireland is negotiating as a small population of 5 million people, when the negotiations should happen at a European level.

I will direct my questions to Professor Barry. I want to be clear on a number of things he said with regard to those suffering with SMA. Has he been asked by the Department to examine the age-based restriction to access to the two drugs that have been approved for those aged under 18 but not for those over 18?