Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has acknowledged that the working group has not issued its findings and there has not been a change in policy. He might explain to me then how, in one of two parliamentary questions that I put to him recently, he told me that the overwhelming majority of personnel in sub-Saharan Africa were prescribed Lariam between 2010 and 2015 but when I asked the question specifically about 2015, I was told that 25% of Defence Forces personnel were not prescribed Lariam. That is clearly a differential. It means fewer personnel are being prescribed Lariam now than were in recent years in that region which I welcome. If the policy is unchanged, will the Minister explain the discrepancies in the number of personnel who were being prescribed the drug?

The Minister failed to answer how there can be an assurance that every personnel member had an individual assessment when the evidence that has been given to him in some instances would state the opposite, that their files were not assessed, they were not asked the appropriate questions and they were not given the proper warnings.

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