Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach knows more than he is saying. Some nine months ago, he wrote to Mary Gorman enclosing an e-mail from Laverne McGuinness of the HSE. The offer nine months ago was €125,000, a 65% discount on the current price. There has been nothing since. That offer is not realistic. We are playing hardball with people's lives and there is a UK precedent. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE, is not known for being particularly generous in approving new drug therapies. Over 200 patients in the UK are receiving this. I cannot name the country because I must protect the identity of the person who spoke to me. That is understandable but it is an EU country similar to our own.

This matter has nothing to do with universal health insurance but is about willpower and the desire to get to the bottom of something and get it sorted. In 2010, ten patients were in the clinician-led high-tech drug programme in St. James's Hospital, which is led by Dr. Paul Brown, and it was identified as the national centre to deal with this. In the agreement, which I have read, it was specified that it should not be administered under the community drug pharmacy scheme. There is a long history in the country of providing access to high-tech drug therapies, particularly those that are new and emerging pioneering drugs where they can significantly improve quality of life and allow people to live a normal life.

The Taoiseach said in his response that no one can put a price on life. The Taoiseach has done so. I have spoken to Mary Gorman this morning and she is in deep distress due to her medical condition.

Time is running out. Last week I spoke to John Duggan, a young married man. Does that 15 year old girl and her family have to uproot themselves from County Donegal to go to the United Kingdom where they will get it? Five days after leaving the country the woman referred to received access to it under the public system.

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