Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister knows that in the past a life-saving drug was approved for cystic fibrosis patients. The plight of the patients on Respreeza has attracted far less interest, perhaps because they are older and fewer in number. As well as the approximately 20 patients on the access programme another 40 people with alpha 1 are waiting to receive it should the HSE give approval. I make this plea in the House. This involves the small number of 20 people, but this is how they have been living in recent months: they are only told this month whether they are approved for next month. It is literally like being told, "We are not sure yet whether we will allow you to have a proper quality of life or whether you will start to slowly die". This is an awful thing to have to say about these people, but it is how they are being treated. I beg the Minister for Health to give these people certainty today. Sit down with the drugs companies, call them to order and ask them to have sense. They have a public and moral responsibility to help these poor people. I am not fighting with the Minister, but I am asking him to tackle this work please. Nothing could be more important than saving people's lives and I ask the Minister to do this please.

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