Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

I listened to Senator Mary Ann O'Brien and my heart went out to the idea of having money available for disabled children and everyone else. I want to have every modern medicine for cancer made available but I also want to ensure modern medicine is available to disabled children, the needy and the poor. One cannot be totally unreasonable and expect that, no matter what manna comes from Heaven, it is there with the click of a finger. One must use different yardsticks.

The statement of the Minister of State refers to a Bill that will include all variations. I want to wait until the Bill is before us. The Minister of State said that the health (pricing and supply of medical goods) Bill will be brought before the House shortly. It will involve a statutory basis for decisions on decision-making on medicines. Who is charged with statutory decision-making? We are not doctors, although Dr. Crown is. I am not a doctor but I am charged with statutory legislative responsibility and I cannot agree only with my soft side, which wants to agree with Senator Crown and make it all available now. The other side is that I am also charged with statutory legislative responsibility. I must also take that side into account.

In cancer treatment, medicine is one aspect but cancer care is another. In the case of a patient I know, a consultant failed to follow up after markers were raised. The person was suffering, knew she was not in remission but was told by the consultant that she was in remission. The people involved were not on the east coast but on the west coast. She had to ensure the scan was read properly. The diagnosis was made in 2007 on another issue and it was noted as urgent but not acted on until 2012. That was not a failure of money or a failure to get the patient into the system. The person was in the system and there were medical flaws in the system. It is not only medicine into which money must go. The Minister of State has an important statement-----