Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 10 February 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement

Engagement with Co-operation and Working Together

Mr. Damien McCallion:

That is not an issue for CAWT. I appreciate the general point. There are challenges in both jurisdictions. Both of them have seen increased waiting lists in the past number of years. Our role is not essentially in relation to mainstream services. Our role relates to looking at innovation, looking at projects and programmes that can deliver benefit and trying to get them mainstreamed in line with the Deputy's question on how to get them into the system. That is our focus and our mandate. Responsibility for waiting lists in the South is within the HSE and in Northern Ireland is within the relevant trust or the Health and Social Care Board. We do not play a direct role in that. We can facilitate that through some of the innovations and ideas I mentioned earlier by trying to look at things that might work and to support both jurisdictions. We have a different role. Our mandate is not to get directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the services; it is really just to try to deliver programmes that can provide benefit. I ask my colleague Mr. Guckian to comment from Northern Ireland.

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