Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We should be allowed to discuss it. I ask the Leader to respond and, hopefully, we can set aside an hour or an hour and a half to discuss a matter of significant national and EU importance.

I wish to update colleagues on a matter I ask the Leader to take up again. Since February 2014 I have been raising the issue of the Fampyra drug for 3,000 MS sufferers who cannot access it. I have been writing repeatedly to the Minister and HSE, as have other colleagues, only to get the same stock answer. What really bothers me is that we have to get our information third hand. I am finding out that the HSE has in fact written to all consultant neurologists for a list of names of patients using Fampyra and benefitting from the drug with a view to compiling a list for August-September of those to whom the drug will then be released. That is great, but why in God's name will they not tell us about it? Why are the Department and the HSE providing us with nonsense responses while I have to find out third hand from an MS sufferer? While I am glad of the news, if it is correct, my point is a more general one. We are raising matters here on a regular basis and the Department knows that. We should be kept informed of how things are, or are not, progressing. I find it unacceptable that we are not. I welcome the news as it looks as if we are at long last getting some long overdue movement. I will be writing to the head of the HSE to get confirmation.