Dr. Joanne McCarthy:

We are often aware that many of the organisations, especially the neurological ones, pick up the slack.

When I first joined the sector a long time ago, I was briefed by the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association. The association knows that in any one year there are about 400 people diagnosed in different stages of the condition. The association provides family support, aids and appliances and it steps into the space that Deputy O'Connell is talking about. We know that model. I do not know whether the Deputy was present when we spoke about the need for establishing a community services programme. The community services programme would provide a service at the point of diagnosis or at the point of presentation. Such a service would be able to respond to the immediate needs of the person in his or her home or as close to that person's home as possible and bring in, exactly as the Deputy suggests, GPs, physiotherapists, primary care and would co-ordinate in a sustained way all the actors that will help the person to live as long as possible with a good quality of life. One would also activate the housing adaptation so that the person would be able to negotiate that new world because post diagnosis. I can only imagine the sense of bewilderment and how an individual or family is trying to deal with the diagnosis and at the same time advocate, and access resources. There is a need for this service.