Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan for bringing forward this Bill and I thank the Minister of State for being here. I also acknowledge that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has entered the Chamber.

Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. While that is not the subject matter of this Bill, we are talking broadly about people having access to healthcare, whatever that may be, so it is important to recognise this day.

I hope that we will have more focused debates on the matter in the coming weeks.

I thank Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan for introducing this Bill and for speaking to me about it earlier this week. The area of orphan drugs is not one I am very familiar with, being relatively new to this brief. What is not new to me or any of us as public representatives is individuals coming to our clinics and ringing our offices who have rare diseases but are unable to access medicines that would help them and make their lives somewhat better or could cure them. They are unable to access these medicines because of the medicines' exclusion from the reimbursement scheme.

In researching this matter and being briefed on it, Ireland was described to me as a medications paradox. We are a massive producer of pharmaceutical products but because of the system that is set up, some of these medications cannot get to the people who need them. That must change. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan mentioned former Deputy John Brassil and his work on this matter. I understand that Mr. Brassil is a pharmacist by trade, so he is someone with expertise in this area and who would have seen the weaknesses in the system on the front line. That is why I am happy to see this Bill before us. I hope that it makes some progress, given that there are weaknesses in the system. When there are drugs that will help or cure people but that we cannot provide to the 280,000 people in this country living with rare diseases, then there is a weakness in the system. We have to work together. Being present for this debate and its contributions from every side of the House, I can see that everyone wants to get to that point.

I thank Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan for introducing this Bill. There is much more work to do. I certainly have to do much more work in terms of my understanding of this area, but from the brief research I have done in the past couple of days, I can see that this Bill is needed. I hope to see it progress.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me the time to speak.

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