It will not surprise the Tánaiste and Minister for Health that at another session of Questions on Policy or Legislation, I have another question about rare diseases. Like Deputy McCarthy, I am going to keep raising this until I see some action. The programme for Government commits to an early access scheme. It also commits to a review of the reimbursement process, which numerous Deputies have raised here over the past few months. We have had people with Friedreich's ataxia and different types of muscular atrophy and dystrophy. The list goes on. Dr. Rónán Collins was before the health committee and I asked him about vaccinations. Vaccinations are subject to the same assessment process as drugs, from the most simple form of application to the most complex. We have an archaic, outdated system. Can we please knock heads together and undertake to carry out what is committed to in the programme for Government, or at least begin to do so? It is going to take a significant period to carry out the reviews. Can we please get on task and do the job at hand?

I thank the Deputy for raising this again. I was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet many of the people with Friedreich's ataxia whom he brought to the Dáil. I want to highlight to Deputies that, importantly, our drugs budget has increased significantly this year, being well up at 9%. This is what the Department expected it to be. We made provision in the overall budget for a 7% uplift, and we are now at a 9% increase. We will make decisions more quickly. We are working on the reimbursement process more quickly, but Deputies need to be aware of the scale of the growth of the drugs budget and where that is going. That is because of people living longer and access to drugs of very good quality. As we make decisions on reimbursement and rare diseases in a shorter period, which is a really important part of what the Deputy is talking about, we need to be aware of the very significant additional costs we are already incurring in this period of 2026.

I assure the Deputy that the Department is considering every aspect of an early access scheme. We will continue to work with the Deputy on that, but I do need to flag the important budgetary consideration to all Deputies.