Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To add to Senator Mooney's comments, the Soviet Union was the first country to recognise the Irish Republic in 1919 and no less a man than Leon Trotsky was its foreign Minister at the time.

I second the amendment regarding the taking of No. 15, the non-Government motion on cystic fibrosis. I will read out a note I received from a person who suffers from cystic fibrosis. He writes:

I suffer from cystic fibrosis, a debilitating disease which affects many organs of the body, eventually leading to premature death in many cases. I am 26 years of age with a life expectancy of 41. I spent three months of this year on intravenous antibiotics, a debilitating chest infection and I spent six months in hospital as an inpatient. Just last September, my lung capacity went to its lowest level ever of 23%. My condition will continue to deteriorate and I too, along with many other young Irish people, will have their lives cut short by cystic fibrosis. However, for the first time, there is now hope. A new drug that treats the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis has become available in Europe. Orkambi targets sufferers who have two copies of the cystic fibrosis gene. It has shown to reduce lung exacerbation by 40% and greatly limits the amount of time that cystic fibrosis sufferers have to spend in hospital. And our hopes were shattered on December 6th by Tony O'Brien of the HSE who said he would not fund Orkambi. It is estimated the treatment will cost €160,000 per patient. This brings the total amount to €92 million. Orkambi will now under undergo a rapid review within the national centre for pharmacology and pharmoeconomics. It is most likely that a health technical assessment will then be required to further assess the drug regarding cost-effectiveness and overall benefit to the patient. However, due to the costs, Orkambi will fail the HTA-----