Medicinal Products
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-29
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Pádraig O'Sullivan (FF), Cork North-Central

I thank the Minister of State for the response. It is predictable, although I do not say that to be dismissive. I know a lot of this and have known it for some time. The point I made in my initial salvo was that we rank 23rd out of 27 EU countries with regard to reimbursement for rare disease drugs. That is a fact. Whether it is Skyclarys or some other drug for some other ailment, the fact of the matter is that Ireland is a laggard among our EU counterparts in terms of reimbursement. I understand that engagement with this company has been attempted. I have not come across this company in the past. I wrote to it myself last week to look for engagement. I would like to think it might do something immediate, short-term and local with patients to give them early access in the absence of State intervention. However, fundamentally, we must be truthful with ourselves in here and recognise that the system is flawed. It is the same system we have had for decades. Any common drug or other product on the shelf of a pharmacy that costs you €2 or €3 goes through the same process as one of these drugs that costs hundreds of thousands of euro. If we fail to acknowledge that fundamental flaw in the system, this issue is going to keep being repeated.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-29