Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 32: To ask the Minister for Health and Children when the long-term illness scheme will be reviewed, including consideration of other appropriate illnesses being added to the list; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6991/10]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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The Long Term Illness Scheme (LTI) was introduced in 1971 under Section 59(3) of the Health Act 1970. It provides that a health board (now the HSE) may make arrangements for the supply without charge of drugs, medicines or medical and surgical appliances to persons suffering from a prescribed disease or disability of a permanent or long-term nature. The conditions which have been prescribed are: mental handicap, mental illness (for people under 16 only), phenylketonuria, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, diabetes mellitus, diabetes insipidus, haemophilia, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophies, parkinsonism, conditions arising from thalidomide and acute leukaemia. There are no plans to extend the list of eligible conditions.