Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I express my thanks to Deputy Gino Kenny for bringing forward this issue for address today. I was pleased to sign Deputy Kenny's motion on fibromyalgia on behalf of Sinn Féin.

Ms Rachel Lynch from FibroIreland and Ms Joan Byrne from ME Advocates Ireland have reached out to me personally and to my party over a long number of years and we have always been more than willing to listen to their issues and try to advance what they seek to achieve. I thank them for their perseverance in advocating on behalf of all those contending with fibromyalgia in their lives.

On the HSE website, fibromyalgia is described as a long-term condition that causes pain throughout the body. In 2008, a declaration was passed in the European Parliament that recognised fibromyalgia as a disease. The World Health Organization had, years previously, also recognised fibromyalgia as a disease.

Fibromyalgia is an invisible condition. It does not show up in scans or blood tests, yet clinicians recognise that it is chronic, leading to muscle and joint pain, sleep disorder, mobility and lifestyle impact. Many sufferers go undiagnosed. Despite recognition by medical professionals of the existence of the condition, there remains, crucially, little recognition of it by the Health Service Executive. The effect of this is that fibromyalgia is excluded from the long-term illness list and without a pathway of care towards a treatment when it is recognised that a person is suffering from the condition.

Without proper recognition of fibromyalgia, many patients remain locked out of the social welfare system. On top of this, even after accessing basic social welfare provision, many remain out of reach of additional benefits, such as free travel and a medical card, to which those who have a recognised long-term illness are automatically entitled.

As Deputy Gino Kenny's motion states, it is estimated that between 90,000 and 180,000 people suffer from fibromyalgia in Ireland. Despite this significant number, there are no nationwide or specialist treatments available for patients. It is vitally important to highlight that many of those suffering with the condition are women, with a ratio of six to one on the basis of female versus male assessment.

To try to address this situation, it is essential that the Health Service Executive and other State agencies sit down together and decide, once and for all, on the basis of the clinical evidence available, if they are willing to officially recognise fibromyalgia as a disease. I make it very clear that there is only one answer that can be reached in such an undertaking. If this is to be the case, an adequate pathway of care, a treatment programme, an awareness campaign and associated funding must be put in place, including specialist clinical teams to treat the condition. This could also lead to the commencement of the collection of data, establishing best practices and expanding knowledge of the condition which will lead to better approaches and better treatments in time. Training and development for medical professionals is also crucial to aiding earliest recognition and diagnosis and the consequent treatments of patients.

One of the asks in the motion prepared by Deputy Gino Kenny and colleagues is that patients be facilitated in accessing medicinal cannabis as a treatment for this condition. Sinn Féin is certainly not opposed to this request, especially where there is clinical evidence to support the request and a prescription from a consultant or suitably qualified medical professional is available. It is something that simply should be done.

I thank Deputy Gino Kenny for bringing this issue forward. I also thank all those who are advocating for recognition of fibromyalgia and the changes in prescription practices that must come about. We in Sinn Féin remain open to assisting in any way we can steps towards recognition of and relief from this cruel and life-debilitating condition.

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