John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before concluding, I thank colleagues from the various committees for their attendance. There will be another joint meeting in a few weeks. I thank the witnesses for their attendance, their informative opening statements and their subsequent replies to the issues raised. Dr. McCarthy made the point that we, as a committee, will be limited in what we can do and it is important that we focus on the two or three areas of greatest significance that would be enablers. If, subsequent to today's meeting, something crosses the witnesses' minds or they reflect on the proceedings before we meet people from the various Departments, they should please get in touch with us. We want our engagement with the Departments to be focused and specific and we want to try to achieve recommendations that will be meaningful and could be implemented to improve the situation. We will not be able to have a recommendation on every matter raised today but we will certainly have on some of them. We must ensure we can identify them clearly, address them specifically and make the recommendations. Certainly, the information given today is food for thought. The witnesses coming before the committee in future will be aware of the contents of today's meeting and this is not about trying to catch people out. It is about getting informed responses on the issues. If there is anything that the witnesses think of between now and the next meeting, and subsequent to that meeting and the Departments' replies, they should feel free to correspond with the committee.