I would like to raise the issue of the way in which drugs to treat rare illnesses such as phenylketonuria, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy are assessed by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. There seems to be a bias against people with rare illnesses in this country. Not only are they discriminated against by their condition, which they have not chosen, but they are also punished by not being able to avail of drugs to which they should be entitled.

I am not sure specifically what is the question. All I can say is that the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics is based in St. James's Hospital and is staffed by medical people, pharmacologists and economists. They receive information from the drug companies, assess the claims made by the drug companies as to the efficacy of a medicine, assess whether the cost proposed reflects the efficacy and make a recommendation to the HSE as to whether it should be funded or not. A similar process is run by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in England and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. It is a normal system that is used around the world. It is always open to companies to come back with new data. Very often a company will present data stating that a drug does this, that or the other thing and that does not necessarily always stack up. However, new data can come along and the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics is always open to reconsidering applications if new evidence shows a medicine to be effective.