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FG TDs secure agreement of party Whips to debate important motion |
Fine Gael Deputies Joe McHugh TD and Andrew Doyle TD were informed this afternoon by Government Chief Whip, Minister Pat Carey TD, that Dáil Eireann will debate a motion on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) on May 21st.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a degenerative muscular disease, affecting Irish families including a number in Donegal. The disease results in an average life expectancy of late teens/early 20s, and currently no translational research and no clinical trials for DMD are being carried out in Ireland
Last November Deputies McHugh and Doyle published a motion on Dáil Éireann’s Order Paper, and today the Government agreed to facilitate this motion on May 21st.
The news comes as a welcome step for 160 Irish families afflicted by the disease, and to the charitable organisations which have raised significant funds for research into the disease.
Deputy Joe McHugh TD said:
“Last November my colleague Deputy Andrew Doyle (Wicklow) and I published a motion on the Order Paper on this subject, and this morning’s development in Dáil Éireann is significant.
“On 21st May Dáil Eireann will debate the motion. I will be advocating the motion, and I will be targeting something achievable and realistic, within existing funding budgets. We are all aware of the current budgetary constraints and we will have to work within that framework.
"There are promising research strategies in place in other countries for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which accelerate drugs through the clinical trial process, including in the UK.
Deputy Doyle said:
“We must ensure that Irish sufferers have access to these trials, because currently the life expectancy for Irish sufferers is far below the life expectancy of sufferers in the USA and in Great Britain.
“I will propose that the Irish Government helps to fund health research that is currently being conducted in the UK, in conjunction with the Health Research Board (HRB) and other agencies of expertise.”
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