With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 46 and 47 together.
Under existing legislation, health authorities can and do make arrangements to alleviate financial hardship which may fall on parents in any income group in arranging for proper care for children suffering from the disease.
I am considering whether more formal provision should be made for free treatment for persons, irrespective of income group, who are suffering from selected classifications of long-term ailments. The special position of children suffering from fibrocystic diseases will be considered in this connection.
Information is not available in my Department about the number of cases of this disease in Dublin and in the rest of the country. It has been estimated that not more than 60 new cases occur each year in the country as a whole; most of these, however, die from unpreventable causes in infancy or in early childhood.