Ms Siobh?n McArdle:

With regard to disadvantage and the growth in the community specialist palliative care teams, we have 32 of those specialist multi-disciplinary teams now around the country. They work very closely with the GPs and acute hospitals and also with hospice or specialist inpatient services. There has been expansion in the capital investment for hospice or specialist inpatient services. We currently have 14 hospices around Ireland and plans in development for three more which, when they are built, will mean that every region and area in Ireland will have access to both community specialist palliative care which is currently available but also inpatient services. We find that people are travelling, perhaps, to access those inpatient services where they are not available as close to the community as they should be currently.