Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy White, for coming to the House to respond to this matter. I first became aware of this problem on Facebook, when a constituent tagged me on a post uploaded by a young Galway woman in relation to the circumstances facing her family, particularly her mother who suffers from MS. Rather than try to describe the situation I propose to read into the record the post uploaded onto Facebook by the young woman, which I believe will illustrate the situation far better than I can. It reads:

I don't normally make statuses like this on FB but our government needs to see and hear what effect the decisions they make have on families, from the families themselves! My name is Caitriona I'm a 24 year old student nurse, from Galway originally but I'm studying in Sligo. As you know, nursing is a profession that involves providing high quality care and treatment for the sick and promoting health for all. And as a nurse the situation my family is facing at the moment has greatly affected me because our country won't provide my mother with the treatment she needs. We recently received the news that my mum, who has Multiple Sclerosis, will no longer receive her medication (Fampyra) on the Long Term illness Scheme. Meaning that she will now be forced to pay 500 euro a month if she wants to have the only tablets that have treated the symptoms of her MS in particular her walking ability and fatigue. My mum retired early because of the illness, and her loss of mobility and loss of power in her arms and hands, she uses a collator to walk, and has a hand controlled adapted car as her legs have severely reduced power, she has foot drop and has had two falls, one of which took me and my brother ages to get her off the ground and resulted in a fractured shoulder. Watching the effects that her condition has on her has been awful, hell actually and without her medication things will progress sooner. It will be impossible for her to afford these on the pension that has already been cut and making ends meet at the moment is already difficult. She currently has a six weeks supply left and if I have to write to every TD in this country for the next 6 weeks I will, because she needs this medication as much as anyone with a terminal illness needs theirs! This issue is not only affecting her but others around the country and it needs to be brought to your attention, and I cant emphasise this enough! It took me hours to write this because I couldn't get the words out, but because of the fear of what the future has for her, I did!! Please like and share this status in the hope that someone hears my voice and yours in support of my mums treatment.

As I said, that post was uploaded by a young lady in Galway.

In a recent article in The Irish Independent a man said that the drugs allow him to continue to do a job he loves, pay taxes and not need any home care. He has been on the medication for three years and in one instance when he could not get the drug for two weeks he went from using one stick to needing two sticks to walk. The article states:

If I forget to take one of the tablets I am very unsteady and can barely walk. It gives me the strength to lift my feet up steps and basically get around the house and get in and out of work. In the evening when I have a double dose in my system I can even climb a flight of stairs.

The man also said that the drug has improved his balance and reduces his risk of falling. The article continues:

I have gone on to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and there is no cure. All I can do is hope that it will not get bad quickly.

That is what the drug has been doing for the lives of real people. I appeal to the Minister of State to do anything that he can to help these people, including re-engaging with the pharmaceutical company involved and the HSE. These are real people's lives. I implore the Minister of State to find a solution to this problem and to help these people.

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