Ms Anna Quigley:

Traditionally, a Minister of State has been responsible for this area. When this initiative started it was the responsibility of then Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, who had a seat at Cabinet. There have been approximately nine different Ministers of State with responsibility in this area over the past number of years, all of whom were excellent. Currently, there is no Ministry responsible for this area and it is now a matter for the Department of Health. We have met with the Minister for Health, who has said that while he is interested in the issue his agenda is too large. He was very honest about that. There needs to be a Minister of State with responsibility for this issue only and who is dedicated to addressing it. It is crucial that the parent Department, which is currently the Department of Health, sees its role as bringing together all of the other Departments on this issue. Its role cannot be a paper exercise. It must have the authority to hold all of the agencies to account in respect of what they should be doing. That worked in the early days of the strategy. If a Minister of State is appointed, he or she must have a real commitment to this issue and have a track record in this area. Up to recently, that was the case.