Mr. Philip Watt:

The Deputy is absolutely correct. The lung transplant programme in the Mater Hospital for cystic fibrosis, with which I am familiar, is fantastic but at the moment most patients have to go to England, mostly to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. This requires travel by aircraft, which is actually dangerous for people with reduced lung function. It makes perfect sense for protocols to be put in place, and hopefully this will happen when Stormont is up and running again, so that the Mater hospital is at least a choice for people. Other people might opt to go to England. Clinicians in Belfast City Hospital in the North would be very much in favour of such a development.