asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he is aware that patients are unable to obtain essential supplies of protamine insulin, that their lives are thereby endangered and whether he will undertake to issue temporary import licences to these patients when supplies are not available from the regular licensees in Eire.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Supplies of Insulin.
The reply to the first part of the question is in the negative. There appears to be some misapprehension as regards the import of insulin. Insulin is a therapeutic substance and its import is governed by the provisions of the Therapeutic Substances Act, 1932. Import licences can only be granted to the persons specified in Section 12 of the Act and there is no authority to give any exemption therefrom. Any patient requiring insulin should be able to obtain a supply through his medical adviser. It is not possible under the Act to grant licences for the import of insulin direct to patients, but I am prepared to facilitate as far as possible the grant of import licences to registered medical practitioners to meet the needs of such persons. There are also reserve stocks of insulin in the public institutions throughout the country.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that at the moment certain persons find it impossible to get insulin with which to preserve their lives; that, in fact, supplies of insulin, having been secured from Great Britain, are held up at our ports and that persons in need of them are refused access to them because they will not be given a licence to bring them in; and that a firm in Cork, who are licensees under the Therapeutic Substances Act, have not got the insulin and cannot get it? Under these circumstances, surely people who stand in need of it for the preservation of their lives ought to be facilitated in getting it. If the Parliamentary Secretary will say that, if anyone in Cork wants insulin and can get a doctor's certificate, he will license the doctor to get it, that is all I want. Am I to understand that, if the person whom I have in mind goes to her doctor, that doctor will be licensed to take the insulin out of detention in Cork and give it to the patient?
Yes, that is the position. In fact we have no power within the law to issue a licence for the import of insulin to anybody other than the classes specified in Section 12 of the Act. There are in fact adequate supplies of insulin in the country. If there has been individual hardship, as I understand there has been, it is because the person concerned was unaware of the proper procedure to adopt.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the person whom he and I have in mind has been in correspondence with his Department for the past nine months on the subject, and is it not time that the Department should indicate the correct procedure to her, if they have not done so already?
I think Deputy Dillon is entirely misinformed.
On the contrary.
I am not aware that the person whom Deputy Dillon is interested in has been in correspondence with the Department for nine months, or even nine weeks. On the 28th January, an application for a licence was received from this person's private doctor, and on the 29th it was issued to the address given on the form of application. It appears that the address was inaccurate or incomplete and the licence was returned marked "not known". On the 31st, the licence was re-issued in Cork to the patient, and apparently it reached its destination all right. But I am not aware that there has been any prolonged correspondence with that particular individual or with anybody else on the matter.
I do not wish to leave the House under the impression that I am suggesting the Parliamentary Secretary withheld supplies, because the Department up to recently had proved accommodating and facilitated the issue of special licences. Apparently, however, the patient was not informed of the correct procedure. The Parliamentary Secretary now says that if an application is made through her medical officer she will be facilitated. That is ample and very fair.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that during the past week medical officers in the City of Dublin have been unable to obtain insulin, and will he take steps, if it is available, to see that it is distributed?
I can only say that, if the position is as described by Deputy Doyle, I am entirely unaware of it and we have no information to that effect in the Department. If the medical practitioners concerned get in touch with the Department the position will be regularised without any delay.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary look into this business of the insulin scarcity himself?
I am satisfied that we have ample supplies in the country for a period of about three months.
That is very satisfactory.
asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he is aware that certain persons who have come to this country recently from England and who were attached to clinics there, whence they obtained regular supplies of insulin free, by virtue of their membership, have been refused licences to import such supplies direct by post (under the Therapeutic Substances Act, 1932) on the plea that such supplies can be got from approved importing agents; and, if in view of the fact that latterly such agents are unable to guarantee regular supplies, and realising the grave danger which a shortage of insulin might cause to those affected he will relax the import licence regulation in the case of postal packets to individual recipients for the duration of the war.
The import of insulin is regulated by Statute and there is no power to depart from the statutory conditions. Persons who have come to this country from England and who were attached to clinics there should get a registered medical practitioner to apply for an import permit on their behalf. It is not possible under the Act to grant licences for the import of insulin direct to patients but I will gladly do anything to facilitate the issue of import licences in such cases through medical practitioners.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary say approximately how many individual cases have come to his notice where persons getting insulin through the post made application for the release of it or for a licence for the importation of it through the post?
The only case that has come to my personal notice is the case which was under discussion on the last question.
There is only one case in Cork?
So far.
With regard to the Parliamentary Secretary's statement about adequate supplies of insulin being available, I am afraid it is like the tea and the petrol. Will the Parliamentary Secretary believe me when I say that I have at the moment in my possession correspondence from a large firm of distributors in town to one of the distributors in Cork saying that they have been writing for six weeks to one of the insulin agents in Dublin for a supply, and not only have they been unable to get a supply but unable to get a reply to their letters?
I quite believe what the Deputy says in relation to a particular firm and a particular brand of insulin. In relation to that brand of insulin, the place where it was manufactured was involved in an air raid and that brand of insulin is not available at the moment. Equally reputable brands, however, are available, and adequate stocks are in the country at the present moment.