Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand the rare diseases plan only covers eight conditions. The health service in Italy has a screening programme in place and I understand the Minister for Health will meet his Italian counterpart. The difficulty is that in many cases the only way these rare conditions can be detected is if a child misses a developmental milestone, for example, starting to crawl, walk or talk. In many cases, the system only reacts when a child with a serious and rare illness falls critically ill. Yesterday, I met some of the families involved who asked if it would be possible to expand the system in place here.

The Italians say they are saving hundreds of millions.

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