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

I disagree. I do not want the Taoiseach to get involved in negotiations. I want him to ensure proper, intensive negotiations take place. Since 2012, 32 new cancer drugs have been approved in Ireland. However, during the past 20 years only two new drugs have been developed for cystic fibrosis. One is Kalydeco and the other is Orkambi, which has not been approved. We are not comparing like with like. Globally, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation offered $75 million to the pharmaceutical world to start developing cystic fibrosis drugs. The top ten pharmaceutical companies rejected the offer. Only Vertex took it up. I am not here to advocate for any company.

The easy thing to do politically is to attack big, bad pharma. It is great political line. However, it does not resolve this. I have spoken to Deputy Billy Kelleher, who has spoken to people on all sides here, and I am not clear that intense negotiations have taken place. A figure of €30,000 has been thrown out. Nobody but those who threw the figure out believes €30,000 is a runner for a drug developed for a rare disease. It could be a bridge to a cure, which must be the ultimate objective of research and development.

I do not think this has been handled well. It is not good enough that the cystic fibrosis population should read about the outcome of negotiations on the front page of a Sunday newspaper and receive a tweet late on a Saturday night. This is the context, and there is bad blood. I did not like what I saw being argued publicly. A deal cannot be made if there is just hostility and bad blood between the two sides. That is no basis for resolving it. There is an issue with a rare disease globally. We have a huge problem. We must break the logjam and I do not believe there has been a realistic attempt to do it. I would like to get the evidence that there has been.

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