Opening epilepsy unit on a phased basis ‘is bonkers’

A young woman who lost all her teeth during epileptic seizures, and has undergone plastic surgery for facial injuries, has been refused funding for treatment abroad despite the fact that she cannot get it here.

Yvonne Brennan, 27, from Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, is one of more than 250 people waiting for assessment in one of the country’s two epilepsy monitoring units (EMUs), which remain closed.

The units, at Cork University Hospital (CUH) and Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, are crucial to understanding why people have epilepsy and how best it can be treated.