Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support calls by Senators Landy and Whelan on narcolepsy. Like both of them, this morning I met the families that are suffering from narcolepsy, and it is clear that not enough is being done for these people and that they are being frustrated in their efforts to achieve what they need to achieve. Although narcolepsy is accepted by the Department as a long-term illness, it is not listed for the purposes of qualifying for a long-term illnesses book. Only 54 people are diagnosed with this disease.

Senator Whelan had an Adjournment debate matter on this issue last September and in response to his question it appeared the Department was doing the devil and all to satisfy the needs of these people. However, nine months on, they are being stonewalled by the Department. Although it is an accepted long-term illness, it appears that if they apply for a domiciliary care allowance or disability allowance they are being refused, sent down the road of 12 months of an appeal process and then perhaps refused again. It is outrageous.

I was disappointed to see again that the promise of giving medical cards to people with long-term illnesses is being withdrawn. I do not see the logic in it. The new plan is to roll out medical cards to everybody. We are talking about a select number of people who have long-term illnesses, not the whole nation, and yet we are deciding to roll out medical cards to the whole nation before we deal with these people. It is time we had a debate on this and it would be no harm if the Minister would come in and answer questions on this issue, in particular about people who have narcolepsy.