Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I did not ask the Minister of State to comment on current cases or in any way stray into those cases. I am well aware of them, as is the Minister of State, because we have raised those issues in the House.

One part of this question is to do with Mali. The information I have is that a number of the 33 members of the Defence Forces in Mali have had to switch from Lariam to doxycycline because of a reaction to Lariam. It is good that they are on a different drug, but the fact that Lariam was there in the first instance shows that a poison is being given regularly to Defence Forces members on missions overseas, endangering them and possibly also endangering civilians, as has happened in the past. We have seen that from international and parliamentary inquiries in other jurisdictions, including Canada.

The key part of this question is why the Government has not complied with the directions of the Dáil, which passed a motion acknowledging the serious side effects of Lariam on members of the Defence Forces, the failure to implement a comprehensive screening programme to monitor the effects from 2000 onwards, the fact that many world militaries have banned Lariam, and that those who take it are three to five times more likely to be at risk of suicide. A majority of the Dáil specifically called on the Government to instruct the military authorities to cease the administration of Lariam immediately. That was more than two years ago. When will the Minister of State implement those calls from this Dáil?

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