Health Strategies
Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-30
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Malcolm Noonan (GP), Agricultural Panel

I thank the Minister of State for her answer. I take on board the points she made as well as how there are supports in place. I reiterate the point that making this universally available for 12-to-17-year-olds could be transformative in terms of asthma care. It is an age cohort where their care for themselves maybe falls down a little bit, so having the MART inhaler available could be a really significant transformation. I understand the pressures that Department is under in terms of the drugs budget.
I want to thank the Asthma Society of Ireland for its engagement with me on this. We had a fantastic World Lung Day event last week. It was really interesting to see the range of work going on in terms of lung diseases in Ireland. Separately, the Asthma Society faces significant challenges in terms of the support for national organisations funding, as they were unsuccessful this year. I ask that the Minister of State engage with Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, in relation to that. The society is a vital organisation. Back in the day, my mother used to fund-raise for it at church gate collections. There is a different funding model now, but it is a vital organisation and cog in the wheel in terms of asthma care. I ask the Minister of State to engage with her counterpart.

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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