Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are many people in this House who sometimes are not overly complimentary about the US military in terms of some of the decisions it makes but for me, that is not so much the issue. We have medical advice available to us in Ireland, which is of the highest standard, and we follow that advice. That is from where we take our lead. If there is growing international evidence to the contrary, we will look at it, whether it is in the US or in some other part of Europe or the world. I assure the Deputy that the only motivation here is the best interests of and the medical protection of our armed forces. If the Deputy has a concern about anything in this area, he should send it to me and we will look at it.

The only reason I mentioned I took lariam was that I was making the point that if one is not a doctor, is a policy-maker or has a different skills set and is making a medical decision, one takes one's lead on that decision from those who know what they are talking about and who understand medicine and the challenges of lariam and malaria which, as far as I am concerned and from an Irish perspective, is the Health Products Regulatory Authority. We will take our lead from that body unless there is reason to raise questions because of international evidence, which we will look at.

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