Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his suggestions. I will refer his suggestion on the heel prick test. We have a group examining these issues. One of the things we want to do is to expand the number of conditions that are tested for. That is, in part, a result of the phenomenal advocacy work of Mr. Les Martin in terms of newborn screening. I will also refer the Deputy's suggestion around blood donation.

While the business case to expand access is being looked at in St. James's, there are no issues at the moment around the availability of the medicines, which is welcome. The medicines to treat the complications are available for reimbursement. We have approximately 41 patients who are awaiting transfer to CHI at the moment, and for all the reasons the Deputy has laid out, we need to make sure that can happen for those people as quickly as possible.

See this speech in context