Ms Anna Quigley:

Funding is crucial. As Ms Hill mentioned, there will be an opportunity to submit proposals to the Department. That shows the change. There was a time the task force was allocated a budget and all the members of the task force, working together in their own areas, could decide how to use the funding. Now there is a process whereby the task force in Tallaght must apply to the Department of Health, which will consult with the HSE, and the HSE will come back to the task force. The process probably costs more money to administer than is available to the task forces. Why are we going through that kind of process when we have the structures on the ground to deal with the issue? Those are fundamental issues, as well as the amounts of money, which are obviously crucial.

I return to the point that if the core funding of task forces had been increased every year since 2013 when the cuts ended, there would not be loads of money available but task forces would certainly be in a better position than they are now.