Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely and wholeheartedly welcome this incredibly important motion which Sinn Féin has put forward. I thank it for giving up its valuable Private Members' business slot so that we could be here tonight. There is no doubt about it that this can be an incredibly frustrating place where one quite often thinks that one does not make a difference. In that sense, there are not many good days in here. I am probably the only one here, apart from Brendan, who is from a Defence Forces background. Many staff in the House are, and this is a very important day.

I am not in the habit of congratulating individuals on Private Members' business but Deputy Ó Snodaigh deserves a huge amount of credit for the patient work he has done on this issue. He has worked co-operatively behind the scenes without trying to steal a headline. It is because of this work that, when this motion passes, we will be one step closer to ensuring that no member of the Defence Forces will ever be forced to take the dangerous, neurotoxic drug Lariam every again. That is incredible. It should not be, but it is because for years we have been listening to the same standard stock answers, which the Minister of State repeated again today. He has said that nobody has died from malaria but was silent on the fact that people have died from Lariam. Tales of the precautions being taken by the medial profession are belied by the reality of life.

I welcome that, when this motion is passed, a majority of Members of this House will be acknowledging the horrific suffering of military personnel who have been given this terribly dangerous drug. Such an acknowledgment will not, of course, undo the damage that has been done to these men and women but we should still acknowledge it. It is the right thing to do because they have faced the most unspeakable intransigence and stonewalling from the Department in their quest to get justice over the years.

I disagree with the Minister of State's take on the legal action. I think the timing of this motion could not be more appropriate precisely because the first Lariam psychiatric damages cases are listed before the courts on Tuesday. The fact that they are set for a three-week hearing tells us all we need to know about what the State's approach will be. The Government intends to dig in, batten down the hatches, basically deny and probably employ very expensive legal counsel in order to bury citizens' attempts to get justice for the terrible wrong which was done to them. As far as I am concerned, this is one of the worst scandals in the history of the State and, let us face it, we have plenty of other scandals to compete with it.

We and the Department have absolutely clear, incontrovertible and undeniable evidence that Lariam is dangerous, that it damages the brain, that its effects can be long-lasting or permanent, and that it causes depression, hallucinations, mood swings, bipolar disorder, mania, paranoia, psychosis and suicidal thinking. I will not repeat the points other Deputies have mentioned but I will point out that the US Food and Drug Administration, FDA, is unequivocal in the wording in its safety report on Lariam in July 2013. It said: "Neurologic side effects can occur at any time during drug use, and can last for months to years after the drug is stopped or can be permanent." The European Medicines Agency is equally unequivocal in its conclusion. It says: "There is enough evidence from the presented drug safety reports, the submitted literature report and the FDA assessment report supporting a causal relationship between mefloquine and the occurrence of long lasting and even persistent neuropsychiatric side effects." The FDA statement is four years old and yet the Government is still forcing personnel to take this drug. Some 42 members of the Defence Forces have been prescribed Lariam this year. It is absolutely incredible. What does the Chief Medical Officer know that the US and British authorities do not know? He does not know anything different. His decision is backed up by stubbornness.

It is absolutely disgraceful, particularly when there are other drugs available. The Department's excuses do not hold up to scrutiny. We know that there is no reason for Malarone not to be used. Contrary to what the Department has said, the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, itself is clear that using it for more than 28 days does not go against the terms of its licence.

Other Deputies have said that country after country is ceasing to prescribe Lariam, yet we still threaten members of our Defence Forces with disciplinary action if they do not take it. Worse still, we have been told that they have to sign a waiver - and we have proof of this - before they start taking Lariam to say that if they so much as report experiencing intolerable side effects, Lariam will be discontinued and they will be considered forever unfit to serve in sub-Saharan Africa. This is so far away from the best medical ethical principle of "first do no harm" that we seem to have stepped into a different dimension altogether. It is completely unacceptable.

I was going to recount the story of one of our personnel and the drug's impact on him in the hope that the Minister of State might be listening, but I am not sure that he is. This man started taking the drug when he was in sub-Saharan Africa and almost immediately experienced problems. The problems continued with clinical depression when he returned home. He had many more physical problems but he put them down to other causes. He was never told the side effects. After collapsing with seizures he stopped breathing. He knows he is not the only one. Hundreds have presented with problems. The doctor who examined him did not even know that depression was a side effect.

I salute the efforts of the people in the Gallery - the Action Lariam for Irish Soldiers group, Tony, Mark and their families who have had to put up with them through this battle for justice over the years - along with Andrew Bryce, Remington Nevin and so on.

Their efforts contrast starkly with the Department's intransigence. The Department insists that doxycycline is unsuitable for malaria because it cannot be taken in conjunction with dairy products. The Minister of State repeated that tonight. Is he even listening to himself? If that was the reason and was a valid concern, would it not be better to recommend to members of the Defence Forces taking the drug to protect their mental health but to give up milk while doing so? However, of course, we know it is not a valid concern because it is completely false. The Minister of State's assertion is incorrect because the HPRA has confirmed no advice is given to avoid the consumption of dairy products in the diet while taking doxycycline.

This debate has been riddled with falsehoods from the Department with enormous consequences for the health and well-being of the men and women in our Defence Forces and their long-suffering families. We will see what happens with the court action, but it is time for the Department to acknowledge the terrible wrong done to those harmed. The Minister of State should take steps to compensate them for that. We should not drag people through the courts when we know what the outcome will be. The Minister of State should hold up his hands and apologise, and let these men and women now move on with their lives.

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