Dr. Darrin Morrissey:

To be direct, the NCCP is charged with setting it up. It is something about which Dr. Coffey will speak. The timeframe is now. It needs to be set up now, with a broad cross-section of stakeholders. Deputy Kelly used the word "interconnected". It is an interconnected system. Therefore, a wide range of stakeholders are required. Certainly, the Department of Health is four square behind it and central to it, as are the NCCP and the HSE. In our submission we outlined the data. We assessed the funding provided throughout the health service that trickled through to cancer research. Whereas the Health Research Board is the biggest contributor, Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council and others also have a stake in the game. The charity sector certainly needs to be involved. We did not mention it, but it is arguable that there could be a role for industry at the table.

The system, as it develops, needs to be an enabling environment for industry players doing clinical trial activity, so they need to be involved. As we put in our submission, the involvement of patients and the public is most critical of all, not just through representative groups but directly. We propose a mechanism which is used by the James Lind Alliance, which is a mechanism for research prioritisation in the context of partnership. That is a potential avenue to explore. It would involve a certain amount of investment because of the broad stakeholder group but there are other methodologies too. With regard to timelines, we have been engaging directly in recent weeks and months about getting this group set up.