Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Dempsey very much. I understand the case she is making. This has been a long-running scenario where successive governments have endeavoured to try to harmonise existing systems. The long-term illness scheme has survived numerous attempts by officialdom to eliminate it. However, in the past number of years, we have concentrated on reducing the level of the drugs payment scheme to €80, which was a significant reduction from where it was four years ago. As the Deputy said, however, there is a greater focus and profile on rare diseases now and we do have to examine that issue for those affected and impacted. I will talk to the Minister for Health on the Deputy's behalf.

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