Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy stated, rare diseases in Ireland are not rare. While they are rare individually, they are common when they are added together. During my time as Minister for Health, I had the pleasure and privilege of developing Ireland's first rare diseases strategy and establishing the National Rare Diseases Office, but progress in recent years has been slow for many reasons. I am not in a position to give the Deputy a proper update on where we stand on the matters in question, but I will let the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, know that they were raised in the House and ask him to write to her to set out what is being done and what we plan to do.

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