Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising that important matter. Obviously the ordering of business is a matter for the Business Committee. I have no difficulty with further debate or discussion in this House. There has already been discussion at the Joint Committee on Health, in which I participated. There was also discussion in the Seanad yesterday in which my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, participated. I must make the point, however, that this is a clinical decision. It has been made by clinicians in the medicines management programme of the HSE. I would like to make it clear that there is a process for GPs to appeal. These are real people too. More than 850 people who do not have shingles have now been approved, which means that more than a third of people have been completely approved. This is about the appropriate use of a medication which, in the view of the doctors and clinicians who advise me, can cause adverse effects if inappropriately used. I want to see compassion and common sense prevail. If it has not in respect of the case the Deputy raised, I would be happy to discuss it with him further.

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