Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Rare Diseases: Discussion
Dr. Sally Ann Lynch:
That is already in place. There are developments of European reference networks. There are many different centres of excellence, including our own, which are trying to join different European reference networks.
There is a lot of work on this area in Europe. It is very difficult for us to give as good a service to Irish patients compared to the Netherlands. It is probably the best example I can give. The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and Sweden have very good infrastructure but we just have not invested in it. There are lots of initiatives across Europe that we are trying to aspire to be as good as, but it is extremely difficult when the interest or the focus is not there.