Professor Jim Egan:

I concur with the sentiment that €6 million in economy of scale is better than €4.8 million. I can testify that we work very closely with NHS Blood and Transplant, NHSBT. It has formally invited us to support its retrieval services in Northern Ireland. Regrettably, we are hampered because we lack the sufficient infrastructure to support that level of activity. The infrastructure for retrieval is very challenging. We have had detailed engagement with Mr. Conroy on this. It is a crucially important goal to achieve.

It is worth noting that the donation rates in Northern Ireland are perhaps the strongest in the UK because it has a very robust publicity campaign. We have met them and sought to learn from what they have done. Mr. Murphy is correct, it is so sensible it probably will not happen. We are working and have shared goals in the area. We have a process around a memorandum of understanding, with Brexit looming, with NHSBT and around the kidney exchange programme. We continue to work on that.