Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

I want to raise the poor state of healthcare for those suffering with allergies in this country. Many parents are forced to spend huge amounts to travel abroad to get their children the treatment they need. I spoke to a woman a few months ago who had to go to America for six weeks. She had to pay €8,000 for treatment. She was also out of work for six weeks and had to pay for accommodation. That is not unusual. A lot of families go to Britain or America to get oral immunotherapy in particular. This can take the form of a tablet like Palforzia, which contains a tiny amount of peanuts for those suffering from peanut allergies, or oral immunotherapy where people, mostly children, are consuming tiny amounts of the product they are allergic to in controlled environments and they build up resistance over time to have a less severe allergic reaction. The problem is that these are not available within the Irish health system and are not even covered by the treatment abroad scheme. Does the Taoiseach agree we need a multiyear national allergy strategy and that we need to offer oral immunotherapy in this country?

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