Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, would not be the first Minister of State to flounder on advice given to him by officials. I will put it to the Minister of State again. In light of the withdrawal by Roche of the drug from sale, the Cole case, the ending in 2016 by the UK Government of the use of Lariam in the armed forces except in restricted cases and its status as a drug of last resort in Britain, USA, Australia and Canada because of the damage it does and the evidence of the harmful side effects, will the Minister of State not now go to the Attorney General with regard to the multiple cases outstanding and request that we address this responsibility in some different way?

The Defence Forces should stop prescribing Lariam now. The decision to continue is only adding to the numbers who will be taking cases in future. The Defence Forces should also deal with the cases in the pipeline. Rather than aggressively contesting court cases, the Defence Forces should sit down and possibly address some form of redress. That would be the right thing to do for the people the Minister of State has said he wishes to defend, that is to say, the members of the Defence Forces.

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