Pádraig O'Sullivan

Half a per cent goes to rare diseases.

I want to begin by welcoming these statements. They are long overdue. I commend the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and all the Ministers involved in the negotiations over the last weeks. The figures speak for themselves. In four weeks, diesel prices at the pump rose by approximately 25%. For a sector where fuel already accounts for nearly half of all operating costs, that was not an inconvenien…

Going forward, we need to look at the tolling system if we are on about protecting supply chains. I am from Little Island in Cork, which is a large industrial area. We have dozens of haulage companies around the harbour area, coming in and out of Ringaskiddy and the city. Cork is a city that is very heavily reliant on the haulage business. We need to have a look at tolling. In certain countries, t…

I know this is a topic the Minister of State is very familiar with, as she has heard me raise it many times within our parliamentary party meetings. This is something she has heard plenty of times from me in the past few years. It is something I am very passionate about. I have more or less dedicated six years of my job as a public representative to pursuing various drugs for rare diseases. I hav…

The NCPE is waiting for a response from the drugs company at the moment but I hope that, in the coming months, we will be in a position where the 200 patients affected will get access to the drug.

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 …

I have the response from the Minister of State.

I thank the Minister of State for attending. I know this does not involve his own area, so I appreciate him taking this Topical Issue. As the Acting Chair said, I want to speak about childcare. It is probably one of the top three most prevalent issues in my own area of the city in Glanmire. If the Minister of State is not sure where Glanmire is or does not know much about it, it is a strong, growi…

You have, to be fair. It was after the flooding. The Minister of State is familiar with it. In the last 15 or 20 years, there has been unprecedented development of residential housing there. In the current city development plan proposals, further residential zoning is earmarked. Recently, the Minister, Deputy Foley, announced €135 million for State-led early learning and childcare services. It is …

It was remiss of me to forget that the Minister of State was in Glanmire when people were in the depths of despair after that flooding incident. I know they were most grateful at that time. They were also grateful to the Taoiseach and the then Minister, Michael McGrath, who was also there at the time. It was remiss of me to forget that, but I know the community in Glanmire certainly will not. In …

28. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation for an update in relation to the Blackpool flood relief scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27251/26]

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 rais…

13. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on justice, migration and social affairs will next meet. [14272/26]

I raise an issue relating to rare diseases. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle and I recently attended a meeting with sufferers of Friedreich's ataxia. The Tánaiste will be aware of the quest by people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy to have givinostat approved. I do not expect him to comment on that because it is subject to negotiation at the moment but the same thing is happening with a different cohort…

Yesterday on Taoiseach's Questions, I raised the significant problem of residential care provision for families in Cork. The Taoiseach knows the difficulties facing families and he has met a number of them. I know his office is inundated with requests for help. Unfortunately, particularly in Cork, it seems we are running from crisis to crisis. It seems that respite or residential care is only avai…

4. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the first meeting of the delivery and monitoring committee for the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, which he chaired on 8 December 2025. [71664/25]

I too want to raise an issue around residential care, following on from Deputy Daly. The Taoiseach and I share a county and city. To be fair, his office was very helpful in the case I worked on with it over the past two weeks where a person required urgent residential intervention. The problem in a Cork context was that this young adult was diagnosed with a mild disability. To call a spade a spade…

23. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on implementation of the well-being framework published by his Department. [71665/25]

I want to raise the section under quality of water or water bodies. The report outlines that the water body assessment showed that 55.3% of Ireland's rivers were assessed as high or good in comparison to 56.2% a number of years prior. The reason I am raising it is that it is specific to one case in Carrignavar, which is in my constituency. Over the past few months, we have been able to tell people…

I have a good chance compared with some in the room. I believe we need to get real here. We spoke about developer-led infrastructure in particular with regard to improving our housing delivery. That seems to be taking a backseat now.

7. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [69862/25]

There has been a lot of commentary tonight to which I have been listening. I welcome everybody in the Gallery. Some of the commentary I agree with while some of it I fundamentally disagree with and, in my three minutes, I will try to explain as much as I can. As a teacher, I taught for 15 years in a school. I would have had interaction with our autism spectrum disorder, ASD, hub, which we had in …

I have been listening to the debate in the Chamber and upstairs for the past 90 minutes or so and can see that a lot of people are speaking from their own personal experience. I live near the River Glashaboy, in Glanmire, and living in the Cork city area with the River Lee, it is inevitable that our day-to-day lives are affected and shaped by the water around us. I have had to go into people's hou…

I welcome the pause, but, obviously, a pause is not a permanent solution. It is not a binding decision and everybody in this House is going to be watching with interest what happens over the next few weeks. We in Fianna Fáil have always prided ourselves on being the party of education. The number of SNAs in the country has increased by 45% since I became a TD. That is a good story but in the past…

I will leave the Minister of State with three points because I know he will be engaging with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and his senior Minister in the next few days. First, the cliff edge that I have spoken to him about regularly cannot be the reality. The review I spoke to him about which happened every year needs to be consistent so we do not face this cliff edge in the future. At this point, …