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It takes up to two years to get a first appointment with a neurologist, because of a lack of specialists. A new patients' alliance is fighting for improved services.

Joe Mooney is 37 and has a good job as a chief executive. Last month, however, his application for mortgage protection, so he could buy a home for himself and his wife, Aisling, was turned down. It was because he has muscular dystrophy. Not surprisingly, he is extremely upset, but he's also very concerned about the implications for people with similar neurological conditions. "Do we all have to go to council houses? Is that the way we have to go?" he asks. He plans to go to the Equality Authority. "It's terrible discrimination."