The Minister for Health Mr Martin has contacted his British counterpart about the dispute between two UK hospitals over whether a 29-year-old Irish man is suitable for a lung transplant.

Mr Billy Burke, from Killorglin, Co Kerry who has cystic fibrosis, has been awaiting a transplant for the past three and a half years. He his confined to his home and on oxygen 24 hours a day.

Fine Gael's education spokeswoman, Ms Olwyn Enright, who raised the issue, said that Mr Burke had told her that "he could not believe he could be left to die because lungs can be sent to one hospital but not to another".

Under an agreement between the State and Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, the hospital carries out all lung transplants for Irish people in return for which all lungs donated in Ireland are only given to the Newcastle hospital.

However the hospital turned down Mr Burke for a transplant in February last year because of a "particular infection in his lungs which is not uncommon in people with cystic fibrosis". In June 2003 a Manchester hospital agreed to carry out the transplant if it could get a suitable lung from the Irish pool.

Mr Martin denied however that Newcastle had "exclusive rights to lungs donated in Ireland, but has a first-call based on suitability. Lungs not required by Newcastle may be offered to other centres in the UK including Manchester."

He stressed that under the agreement there had been 42 transplants since 1999, with 12 performed last year alone. Before the agreement only about three transplants a year were carried out for Irish patients.

Relatives of Mr Burke met the Minister in January about the issue. This week they and the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland appealed to him to intervene. Mr Martin said in the Dáil that he had been in touch with the UK Secretary of State for Health and "have been advised that the person concerned has been placed on the waiting list at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester and is awaiting a suitable donor".

The Minister added that he had been in contact with Mr Burke's physician in the Mater hospital. "It is clear that everything possible is being done by all concerned to ensure that Mr Burke can receive a transplant."

Deputy Enright said that Mr Burke's family had been "trying to resolve this matter behind closed doors for the past 10 months. However, time is now running out and they felt they had no option but this approach which they have finally chosen."

A review of the agreement is expected to begin on April 16th, as the Irish lung transplant programme develops in the new unit in the Mater hospital.