Ms Eibhlin Mulroe:

No budget has been ring-fenced. Last week, I attended a site that could not employ more research staff. It had one nurse and one data manager and was running trials with patients. It wants to do more. A gynaecology trial is about to open, but the site has no research nurse. We, as a charity, will have to try to employ a nurse for that hospital. The same is happening throughout the system.

Universities employ nurses in the system to carry out research. At this point, it is just not good enough. Dr. Morrissey was politely trying to say the Health Research Board should fund research, but activity on hospital sites is in the area of care. On access to a clinical trial, it is about caring for patients and providing the best option for parents. Professor Hennessy will probably want to speak about this issue. If we want to attract more people like him to the country to carry out research and work here, we will have to up our game because it is through research that we get a better standard of care for patients. That is when we get the right people working in our centres. As committee members know, it is a challenge to attract people to work in hospitals here, but I guarantee that if we increase investment in research and hospitals, it will happen.