Mr. Chris Macey:

I thank the Chairman. I just wanted to come back in on the national stroke strategy. We had a meeting with the previous Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, who asked for the stroke strategy in October 2017. It has not been published because this area is utterly under-prioritised.

Stroke is always at the bottom of the pile when it comes to funding, whether it is in hospitals or within the community. Some €50 million for new clinical strategies was announced in the budget, and stroke was not even mentioned. That is something that we are used to.

The strategy itself is not a full strategy. It was deliberately curtailed to increase its chances of getting funded. It concentrates on acute service areas. It will save lives and reduce disability and it will help people who have not had their stroke yet. However, it will not do that much for people like Ms Bardon, who are living with the effects of stroke in the community. That needs its own strategy.

Since we are at such a basic level, what we need to do first is count the number of people who have had a stroke or are living with the effects of stroke, before we can work out what they need. We need to do a full assessment of the needs in the community and then try to address them. We are sadly still at square one.