David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. I recently met with Professor John Crowne. We had a good discussion on cancer care and one of the issues he raised with me was, again, these high-tech drugs to which the Minister referred in the field of cancer. He was very supportive of and enthusiastic and excited about a lot of these new drugs.

However, he pointed out that many of them are not available to patients in this State because, as he and many others who work in this area have observed, the unfortunate slowness of the drug approval process.

I wish to also raise the issue of the drug, Patisiran, which is a life-saving treatment for hereditary ATTR amyloidosis. As the Minister will be aware, that is a disease that is peculiar to people on this island. The drug is available in the North but it is not available to patients in the South, which is problematic.

My point is that we can all celebrate these drugs when they come on stream. Significant advances are being made all the time. However, if patients cannot access the drugs in a timely manner, then we have a difficulty. I genuinely believe it is an area in which we can make improvements. I certainly wish to work constructively with the Minister, as does the Joint Committee on Health, to make advances in this area.

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