Health Strategies Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-30 ============================================================ Malcolm Noonan (GP), Agricultural Panel Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit agus guím breithlá sona di. Tá ceann de na rátaí asma is airde ar domhan againn in Éirinn. Is é an galar scamhóige ainsealach is coitianta in Éirinn í. Is féidir an cuid is mó de na básanna a bhaineann le hasma a chosc trí chúram agus bainistíocht níos fearr. There are currently 450,000 people living with asthma here. One in ten of those are children. Some 86,048 patients with asthma were enrolled with the chronic disease management programme, CDMP, as of 2023 and in the same year, 81 people died from the disease. We have a terrible record here in Ireland in managing the condition. We have the second highest mortality rate among the EU 27, with women twice as likely to die from the disease. It is a story of work days missed, school days missed, over 4,000 inpatient hospital admissions and avoidable hospital admissions. If the Minister of State wants to consider it in economic terms because sometimes that is what the civil servants understand best, asthma cost Irish society over €1.2 billion in 2022. It does not have to be this way. Asthma care has evolved significantly over recent years but such enhanced care requires investment. It requires investment in severe asthma care, establishing and maintaining a severe asthma registry, employing qualified advanced nurse practitioners, improving access to diagnosis, addressing environmental issues affecting asthma sufferers, such as damp homes and urban air pollution, and investing in something potentially transformative for young people, that is, maintenance and reliever therapy, MART, inhalers. What are MART inhalers? MART is an inhaled corticosteroid, ICS, formoterol maintenance and reliever therapy combination inhaler and is considered the gold standard for people with asthma aged 12 and over and for children aged six to 11 whose asthma remains uncontrolled. MART uses a single ICS formoterol combination inhaler for both daily maintenance and symptom relief. This approach ensures that anti-inflammatory treatment is delivered whenever symptoms occur, while also simplifying treatment regimens. Clinical evidence consistently demonstrates that MART reduces the frequency and severity of asthma attacks, improves overall asthma control and is more effective than the short-acting beta-agonist, SABA, or blue inhaler with which we are all familiar. Adherence to preventative treatment in Ireland remains low and cost is most certainly a factor. Many patients continue to rely on reliever inhalers to manage symptoms rather than addressing the underlying inflammation that drives asthma. Children and young people, in particular, are over-reliant on the blue inhaler and this is leading to poor management of the condition. The Asthma Society of Ireland estimates that rolling out free MART inhalers to 12- to 17-year-olds would represent a cost of €12.1 million. The Minister of State can imagine what that outlay would do for hospital admissions from asthma attacks and what it would do to reassure patients and parents and give young people with asthma a better quality of life by being able to participate fully in sports and other activities. This age cohort is a critical one for asthma care in the population more generally, as management shifts from parent to patient and where sticking to a treatment path often declines. Being young is about being young, and often the routine is abandoned. This is borne out through research conducted by the Irish Council of General Practitioners. Many young people rely on the blue inhaler in the pocket to manage symptoms, yet poor asthma control can have a long-term impact on lung development, reduce lung function, remodel airways, and increase the risk of repository infections and weight problems. The Asthma Society of Ireland is calling on the Government to provide funding as part of budget 2027 for free access to inhaled corticosteroid, ICS, formoterol inhalers, which are prescribed as maintenance and reliever therapy, MART, with a proposed phased introduction beginning with young people aged 12 to 17. This will be an important first step towards improving access to an evidence-based treatment and addressing significant inequalities that can arise from the cost of asthma medication. Therefore, I ask that the Minister of State give consideration to whether funding for MART could be included in budget 2027 and whether she will commit to introducing subsidised access to the MART inhaler for young people aged 12 to 17 as the first phase of a wider approach. I also ask what assessment the Department has done of the potential benefits of increased access to MART, including the potential to reduce asthma-exacerbated emergency department attendances, hospitalisation, and over-reliance on short-acting reliever inhalers. The Asthma Society has made this a key ask in its pre-budget submission for 2027. Budget 2027 provides an opportunity for the Government to take a meaningful step towards improving asthma outcomes in Ireland. I would welcome the Minister of State's response. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-30