Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Gallagher, for attending but I regret that the Minister, Deputy Harney, is not present. I am happy to have an opportunity to discuss the urgent need for the Minister to provide the necessary and vital facilities required by young cystic fibrosis patients without delay. Although I am happy to have the opportunity to raise this issue, I am very disappointed that I need to do so. I am extremely disappointed over the way cystic fibrosis patients and their families have been treated and over the lack of urgent action over many years, bearing in mind that Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats have managed the Department of Health and Children for the past ten years and given also the resources of the Celtic tiger. The current lack of resources is very disappointing.

It is hard to imagine another European country in which a cystic fibrosis sufferer would have to go on national radio to highlight the plight and complete lack of adequate health care to meet her medical requirements. The bravery of the young cystic fibrosis patients in revealing the medical difficulties and obstacles posed by our health service is admirable yet heartbreaking. Orla Tinsley, a young woman in her 20s, articulated, in a most effective manner, the daily challenges she faces as a patient. These include unsafe and infection-ridden accident and emergency units, waiting rooms and general wards into which patients who are extremely susceptible to infection are expected to go.

Ireland has one of the highest incidences of cystic fibrosis in the world, yet we tolerate such shoddy treatment. We almost seem to accept that the age to which sufferers survive in Ireland is one of the lowest in the world. One must ask why this group of patients has not received more attention and why there has not been a better response to its needs over the years. Why has the Celtic tiger not delivered for it? The life expectancy of cystic fibrosis patients in the United States is in the 40s and in Britain it is in the 30s. Northern Ireland, which has not had an equivalent economic boom to ours, has managed to push the average life expectancy up to 31, yet it remains at 21 in the Republic.

The Irish Independent and Sunday Independent journalist Gene Kerrigan described an article written by Orla Tinsley as the most extraordinary written during the course of the last general election campaign. Her article asked for the Government to give her a chance to live. Tonight I echo that call for Orla and all the cystic fibrosis patients throughout the country. The age of 21 years need not be the average life expectancy of a cystic fibrosis patient. The national airwaves should not and need not be the place where patients must plead for action and care. What action does the Government intend to take? There have been some reports of urgent action. What action is being planned over the coming weeks and months to achieve a positive outcome in the very near future? Failing to act immediately will cost lives and lead to premature death. It does not have to be like that.