Results 1-20 of 4,213 for speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I would like to talk about that groundbreaking progress. Let us be straight about it - quite a lot of new cancer drugs are orphan drugs. We do not have any separate reimbursement process for those drugs. Is a separate pathway something the Government and the Minister should be looking at?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I am not trying to put words in Dr. McCarthy's mouth but he said we have a "robust" process here. Does he mean get we very good value for money or is the process lengthy and complex? What did he mean by robustness?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I have spent all my time talking about drugs; apologies for that. I might come back if there is more time later. On clinical trials in the Irish Cancer Society's submission, what is the genuine fear? I assume the society deals with pharmaceutical companies and industry the whole time. What is the genuine concern they express to the society in relation to attracting clinical trials to Ireland?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I welcome everyone this morning. I will stick to what I spoke to the Irish Cancer Society about previously, particularly the area of drugs and reimbursement. I have been on this train for a while when it comes to raising this issue. First, I acknowledge there has been progress in recent years. While we are getting money allocated to new drugs, the process of reimbursing drugs,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I am talking about the process itself, not the transparency issue because we should be doing that anyway. We do not need Mazars to tell us that, to be fair. Is the reimbursement process effective, efficient, timely and patient-centred?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I am sorry to interrupt Professor Ó Laoide. Over the years, I have seen a number of presentations such as the one given to us today. We are making comparisons this morning with Denmark, which has a similar size economy and population, but is dramatically better, faster and more efficient at getting drugs and treatments to patients. Where are we going wrong?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: Is the market here any different from the market in Denmark in terms of patient cohorts? I assume they are similar.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: So it is the process, rather than-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I am sorry to be pushy but I am watching the clock. With regard to the early access programme, the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, said on the record that she is looking at this. Thank God that, after many years, she is looking at it. Where does the HSE stand in that regard? How does it envisage its roll-out? I know it is very tentative at the moment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: Professor Ó Laoide was right to acknowledge at the start that there are myriad of reasons for the delays. It is not just the public side. Sometimes, it is the industry and the negotiation piece.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: Yes. Professor Michael Barry told us that last week, to be fair. Do the witnesses feel that the one-size-fits-all approach to the reimbursement process is working, notwithstanding the time issue? Is it suitable to put all the drugs in that process or should we have something more bespoke?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: Take the quality threshold as an example, which we debated last week. No rare disease drug is going to meet that quality threshold. Last week, Professor Barry said that one such drug met that threshold in the past year. To take that example by itself, what do the witnesses think of that process?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: Clinical trials were mentioned. One of the things that has defined my outlook on reimbursement, which the witnesses may have gauged from earlier discussions, was a meeting Deputy Lahart and I had with a group of public servants from Denmark who set up an ad hoc rare disease committee a number of years ago. They came here to learn about how Ireland is the leader in terms of manufacturing,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: Would proper resourcing of, and investment in, European reference networks be fundamental to that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I understand we are not doing that at the moment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Current Issues Relating to Health Services for Cancer: Discussion (22 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I am sorry for being late. I was listening upstairs. I will follow on from Deputy Sherlock's points about drugs. We had a meeting here last week, and I do not want to put words in Professor Michael Barry's mouth, but there was almost an impression given that the public system is performing reasonably well. Deputy Sherlock made the point there about people having access to drugs possibly...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Sports Funding (21 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I thank the Minister of State for the response. The one thing I can glean from this response, and that is encouraging, is that the Minister of State has stated the FAI told him at its next board meeting it will bring forward details on the project. That is welcome progress because this is something that the community of Glanmire and all the public representatives involved, including local...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Sports Funding (21 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I thank the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, for coming in. It is rare enough to come in here for a Topical Issue and get the line Minister, so I do appreciate it. This is a long story. It goes back to 2020 initially. I think in January 2020 we were delighted when the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, unveiled plans for a massive development, or so we thought, of a centre of...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (21 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I raised an issue with the Taoiseach three weeks ago regarding the elective hospital in Cork. To be fair, the Taoiseach gave a good response and said it was a political decision that was made on the timing of the hospital, not a HSE decision. As I told the Taoiseach, the hospital was initially meant to take patients in 2027, but it is now looking like 2030 because the project will go from...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (21 Oct 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: 13. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on infrastructure will next meet. [56982/25]