Disease Management
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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Martin Daly (FF), Roscommon-Galway

I thank the Minister for that. This is really important. Haemochromatosis was a hidden disease up to maybe 20 years ago. People would appear late in the disease with diabetes and liver failure and die from this condition. Thankfully, there is greater awareness in recent times. It was in my own family. My father had it and it was in his family. It can be managed very well. We need to diagnose it early. We need to be absolutely aware of how common it is. I do not think many people are aware of that. It can be simply treated in primary care. When we talk about capacity in general practitioner surgeries, that is an issue because while the State has a fee for GPs to do the venesection in their surgeries, many do not have the capacity to do so. People with haemochromatosis end up in hospital at some distance from their own homes. It is about raising awareness because it is the most prevalent genetic disease in Ireland. It is called "the Celtic curse".

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05