Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Kenny and I have many conversations about this. He is absolutely correct that the Minister is dragging his heels when it comes to providing an access programme for the three conditions. The Health Products Regulatory Authority has not found evidence that cannabis-based products are a treatment for pain. This is a debatable issue, however.

The Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, cited Sláintecare as a possible solution to the treatment of patients with fibromyalgia. Our health service is struggling to deliver acute urgent care. We discussed this here this morning when debating the problems in Limerick, where 81 people were on trolleys yesterday and 76 are on trolleys today. Those are unbelievable numbers and the problem is replicated across the country. While Sláintecare seeks to reform the health service, if the Minister of State is to cite Sláintecare as a cure or means of providing services to treat fibromyalgia, I can tell her for nothing that it will not do so today, tomorrow or the next day.

Another issue regarding fibromyalgia is that 50% of people who suffer from the condition are not working. They are lost to the workforce. This is not only a great personal loss to the individual concerned, but also a great loss to the State in that there is a cohort of people who, because the services to treat their condition are not there, are a loss to the workforce. I accept that the Government needs to address this issue through Sláintecare, but it also needs to front-load this in supplying the necessary personnel within primary care to deliver a service which is not a medication service. It should be a physical service, a psychological service and a support service. It should provide physiotherapy, occupational therapy and, in particular, cognitive behavioural therapy to people who have this condition in order to help them to cope with it. The failure of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection to recognise it as a condition is also unbelievable. Many GPs are left signing people off work for musculoskeletal conditions, but one cannot put down the word "fibromyalgia". That is unacceptable in this day and age. No one wants to be labelled with a term which the State fails to recognise, and fibromyalgia is one such condition.

Fibromyalgia is a condition that is not receiving particular attention, and I thank Deputy Gino Kenny for introducing this debate. The Minister of State needs to recognise the condition. This encompasses the holistic approach we should have for care in our community. It should be community-based and built into Sláintecare. However, Sláintecare has so many problems before getting to fibromyalgia that the Government must specifically target resources towards it.

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