Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Not within this €10 million, but for next year. The €10 million that we are looking at here was a one-off fund we created for the voluntary sector, €8.5 million of which went to voluntary hospices around the country. As for the other €1.5 million, there are community palliative care voluntary services in a few of the community healthcare organisations which we funded as well, and then we gave Laura Lynn Foundation, the Irish Hospice Foundation and two others €100,000 each.

We are putting additional money in for next year as well. For example, probably the nicest thing I have done since I got this job was to go and meet representatives of the Laura Lynn Foundation last week. I had the extraordinary pleasure of doing a video call with them a while ago and saying that we are allocating €1.5 million to them next year. Their funding is approximately €4.5 million and they have never got anything from the State. I had the immense pleasure of being able to say to them that on top of the €1.5 million, they are getting €750,000 of the €10 million we are now talking about. I had the absolute joy - it is the first time I got a clap since I became Minister for Health - of going to meet them last week and saying that the €1.5 million we are giving them next year is now in the base. They are getting that from now on. There is really strong support from the Government for palliative care and for the hospice sector. That is only one example.