Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting that it took an inordinate length of time to get the Minister of State to provide some clarity on the matter prior to the case being listed before the High Court. In any event, the position of the Defence Forces on the matter has been that if someone is going to sub-Saharan Africa, he or she must be given the drug at least two weeks prior to departure to accommodate either minor or tolerable side effects or to determine whether the side effects are intolerable. The problem has been that the Defence Forces have never defined what was tolerable and minor and what was intolerable until, with the intervention of the Ceann Comhairle, the Minister of State answered a previous parliamentary question admitting, and there is no secret about this, there were adverse reactions which mandated that Lariam would be discontinued. My question today sets out a list of specific reactions, including anxiety, restlessness or confusion, which terms were used as early as 1995 in the newsletter of the Irish Medicines Board, as well as by the manufacturer of the drug in its list of side effects. When did the Defence Forces become aware that the side effects required the discontinuance of Lariam? The Minister of State has already admitted to me that there were other side effects that were deemed to be intolerable and which required the discontinuance of Lariam.

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