It is not often an issue comes before the Oireachtas that is as clear cut, brutally simple and has life or death implications as the issue of organ donation and the provision of the drug Orkambi for people who suffer from cystic fibrosis. It is a life saving and life improving drug, but the Government has suspended negotiations on it. We understand that the Minister for Health was supposed to meet his European colleagues and try to secure an over-arching approach to this, but he has not managed to get a solution from them.

He is on his way to the airport.

I know, but he does not have a solution.

He had to be at the airport at 5 a.m.

He told us clearly months ago that he was going to write to them.

The Leader will respond. Will Senator Frank Feighan, please, allow Senator Mark Daly to continue?

In the meantime, people have been going in and out of hospital or spending months in hospital. There is no urgency on the part of the Government on this issue. Members attended presentations on the matter in the audio visual, AV, room yesterday and last week. The presentation yesterday was by Deputy Billy Kelleher, my party's spokesperson on health. It is particularly moving to hear about people whose families have suffered bereavement or whose children have had to be put into comas rather than suffer through the agonising pain of having their lung function decrease, and then to hear from those whose lives have been transformed and even saved as a result of this wonder drug. The issue is economics as much as anything else.

The organ donor system is a shambles. In 2013 the Seanad was recalled from its summer recess to discuss the organ donor system. We spend €325 million per year on kidney dialysis and on keeping people who are awaiting organ transplant alive. In this country 65 people die each year while waiting for an organ transplant. Then there are the people who are taken off the transplant list because they simply are not well enough to receive a transplant. They die quietly and are not even recorded as a statistic. A total of 650 people are awaiting transplants, be it a lung, heart or kidney, and it costs €325 million. We should have a system in which kidney transplants alone are carried out correctly. Croatia transformed its system ten years ago and it now has a surplus of organs to give to other countries. We do not have that system. The system simply does not work. It is not fit for purpose. A Member of this House, who was the Minister for Health at the time, signed the first legislative measure in the history of the State relating to organ transplantation, and it was signed on the last day required under an EU directive. It was described by organ donation organisations as something that would cost people's lives because it was such a shambles. It did not improve the system but actually made a bad system worse. It did not give power to one authority but to a range of authorities. If we had a functioning organ donor system that worked, the €325 million per year being spent on keeping people alive could be used to purchase the drug Orkambi and there would be a surplus left.

The Senator's point has been well made.

This is not about Orkambi as such because there is a bigger issue. People are dying on the waiting list and other people are taking up hospital beds when they would prefer to be at home and contributing to society. This is all because the organ donor system simply does not work.

We will press for an amendment to the Order of Business to have No. 12 on the Order Paper taken.

Is the Senator proposing an amendment to the Order of Business?

Yes, that No. 12 be taken today.

Is it to be taken before No. 1?

Yes.

What item is it?

No. 27, non-Government motion No. 12.

I congratulate the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Leo Varadkar, for moving swiftly on the issue of pensions in Independent News & Media. That is the type of action one expects from a Government Minister. However, while he is to be congratulated for it, that should not be seen as endorsing him as leader of the Fine Gael Party or the like.

Senator Mark Daly spoke about Orkambi and I am aware that people are travelling from all over the country to protest outside the Dáil today. I will not get into the debate on Orkambi, as it has been well outlined by my colleague. However, recently I visited Spain where I met a former colleague who happens to be on blood pressure tablets. He told me that he had bought his year's supply of those tablets for €14.95. The same tablets cost him €1,100 here.

Ireland is a member of the European Union. Why, in God's name, are we not centrally managing drugs and drug purchases at EU level, rather than individual member states trying to manage it? The type of costs involved with Orkambi are absolutely massive. I accept that drug companies must be able to get a return on their investment, but why must this poor little country suffer every time when it is part of a much larger economic community? If the European Union can manage agriculture and manage fisheries, badly, for this country, with managing all sorts of other things, surely it should be able to manage the drugs industry and ensure there is a standard cost across Europe, instead of there being different costs in different places. People tell me it is cheaper to book a flight to Lanzarote, buy their drugs for the year there and come home with change in their pocket than to pay what they are being charged for them in this country. I am sure that is not all due to the chemists. I commend the people who try to negotiate a reasonable price for drugs in this country, albeit I am deeply saddened that the Orkambi issue has not been resolved as it is having a serious impact on families.