Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like other committee members, I am very humbled in the company of the witnesses. I suspect they do not realise the value of the work they do. We are learning from them and have much to learn and much to help them with. They are here because they need to move palliative care on. Why are there not enough staff when the universities are bursting with nurses? Where is the gap in that context? The universities are training brilliant young women who are then going off to England and elsewhere because they cannot get work here. How do we fill that gap or address that? The staff needed for palliative care are here, being trained and educated but why are they not in the system? Following on from that, why are there not enough paediatric nurses and palliative paediatric nurses?

Dr. O'Reilly's paper was excellent. I ask her to elaborate on what she means by upskilling existing staff. What does that entail? How would Dr. O'Reilly embed those skills? What would she do or create around that and how would she like to see it done?

I have a question for Ms Ling. How can staff get the qualification they can obtain in England here? How can that be set up? How do we convince a university or college to do that?

Ms Carroll's paper was extraordinary. With the indulgence of the Chair, I wish to tell a short story. I was doing a piece on embalming in Ireland and met an embalmer, a young girl from Australia. She was a freelance embalmer. When she was very young her father died of meningitis. She was only nine years old, was his only daughter and adored him. She was not allowed to view the body, to grieve or to talk about it. That was one of the reasons she became an embalmer. Ms Carroll spoke very well about silence and exclusion. She also said that there are no standards for bereavement supports in Ireland. What does she mean by that? I am sure it is not a generalisation or sweeping statement and I ask if she has evidence to support that point.