Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before I get to my question, I will clarify what I was saying earlier about the SET allocation. I have a scoresheet in front of me from a school principal. It includes weighting towards, as I said, illiteracy, innumeracy and the educational disadvantage or geographical location of a school. Nowhere in that assessment is there any provision for complex needs, as I stated. When it comes to brass tacks, that is the way allocations are scored and weighted. On that basis, I ask the Taoiseach once more to go back to both Ministers to ensure that schools are not being disadvantaged, as I am suggesting.

As regards my question today, it would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity on the Taoiseach's last day taking Taoiseach's Questions to raise for the last time with him the issue of rare diseases and, specifically, reimbursement. More than 40 stakeholders from patient groups and industry are coming in to meet a cross-party group tomorrow at 12 noon in the audiovisual room. I encourage the Taoiseach and anybody else here to attend tomorrow if possible. Ultimately, what will be spoken about there is how we are, as I have said consistently for three years in the Dáil, laggards in the European context when it comes to reimbursement of drugs. Given that it is the Taoiseach's last day taking questions, I ask that before he departs he look at the possibility of establishing a task force or some kind of specialist group that would look specifically into the whole area of reimbursement.

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