I do not normally talk about my personal life in the House but today I will. I am one of over 10,000 people in this country with multiple sclerosis, MS. I was diagnosed with MS 18 years ago. The past two years have probably been the most challenging of those 18 years but right now I am probably in the best physical and mental condition I have been in for a long time. I have been critical in the past of how to get into the system for treatment but I want to commend the neurology team in Tallaght hospital on the record because, once I managed to get into the system, their care was excellent.

The reason I am speaking about this today is that tomorrow begins MS awareness month. I will do 150 km throughout May for MS Ireland to raise awareness and support for people like me living with MS. Will the Government complete the national roll-out of community neurorehabilitation teams as committed to in the programme for Government?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue in the frank and honest way he did. I wish him personally the very best as he responds to the condition of MS. It is very important that we create national awareness around this issue and related conditions. Is it 150 km the Deputy is going to do?

Yes.

That is fair going. The best of luck on that. I will talk to the Minister for Health. I think it is her ambition to complete all the neurorehabilitation units. This is very important. Neurology has been a challenging area for quite a while in terms of neurologists. We have made a lot of progress in the past couple of years compared to where we were. Neurology and neurological conditions cover a wide spectrum. We are learning an awful lot more about it. The greater awareness and the greater funding we can allocate to the research, the better the outcomes will be.