Professor Bryan Hennessy:

Exactly. It is regarded as an add-on. In the hospital units in which others and I work we struggle day to day with funding for our activity and staff. We receive much appreciated funding from the HRB and the Irish Cancer Society, but we have to seek supplemental funding from charities and through our own activities. This is not the way it should be. We should have stability.

A cancer trials unit should be a part of core hospital infrastructure. The nurses, doctors and research staff should not be add-ons. They should not have to be hired through the research unit. They should be an integral part of the hospital, like any other doctor, nurse, physiotherapist or other staff member, but they are not. The first piece we need to advance the level of cancer trials activity is core hospital infrastructure which is really the responsibility of the Department of Health. The second thing we need, as Dr. Morrissey said, is direct funding for research that will go directly to our units to engage in research activity and trials, as well as our central office at Cancer Trials Ireland. That is what the HRB should be funding. It should not have to support core hospital infrastructure. We need core hospital infrastructure and more direct funding from the HRB for research in our central office and hospitals throughout the country.