Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central I thank the Deputy for raising the situation and how it personally impacts on Emma O'Shea from west Cork. Well over 200 families are impacted by this rare condition. It is particularly high in Ireland in comparison with other locations. I accept fully the impact and trauma on Emma's and other families. The Minister is doing everything possible to progress the issue and get the group established. There is a broader issue about the assessment of new drugs and how we do that. We have to have a scientific dimension to it and a proper rigorous evaluation of the efficacy of drugs. I think that is accepted. Over 70 drugs for rare diseases have been approved in the last four years, so we do approve drugs for rare diseases----- --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-15