Janice Walsh

I understand the difficulty that our government has in terms of these drugs because they are very expensive.

But our process is is extremely slow and certainly one of the slowest in Europe.

That is why I suppose we are particularly grateful for companies that open compassionate access programmes because otherwise our patients do not benefit.

And that, you know, for curable type drugs, this is a big issue because we know that for those patients who relapse with metastatic disease, it is both devastating and extremely expensive.

So it's a false economy.

And is there any way that you can see off the top of your head that that process could be speeded up further?

Like what's delaying it?

Do you know?

We are continually engaged.

Very often it's just the funding piece at the end where it has gone through and the drug has been approved and then it's trying to find the money to pay for it.

So it is not a process I'm directly involved in.

I know, I understand that.

But I'm sure you're at the end of it, you know, in that you know that there's a drug there that you, if you could get your hands on it, you could use it and must be frustrating when at times you can't.

Beyond frustrating, Clare, can you imagine having those conversations with patients where they see this as a real indicator that they will live a little longer and live with a better quality of life?

So it is an extremely difficult conversation and one that unfortunately we have many of.

Yeah, you see, there's another side to this, but I think it is related to it.

Like today in the Irish Times, there was a news story, which we've covered on the programme earlier, where these huge companies that are multinationals operating in Ireland have made public filings to the US authorities.

And this tells us that the likes of Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, the company that you mentioned there, Bristol Myers Squibb, they're paying an absolute fortune in corporation tax here in Ireland, AbbVie.

paid $431 million to the Irish Exchequer in 2025.

And I suppose if you're looking at the balance here, I mean, that's the money that they're bringing into this state.