Mr. Vivian Geiran:

I might add to a point that was raised by Dr. Martin in response to a question relating to the issue of multidisciplinary teams, which is a very important part of both the current and the envisaged system. As he pointed out - this follows on from Mr. Barry's point a moment ago - a multidisciplinary team is not just a collection of people from different professions working in the same building. It is much more than that.

Dr. Martin stated that in his view and that of others, the consultant psychiatrist on such a team would be the clinical leader, and I do not have a huge issue with that. The point I want to make about disciplinary teams is that we tend to be waffly and fudgy about them, and to some extent, we feel that if there is a collection of professionals and a medic among them has been identified as the leader, we will all be grand. We need to be clear about what the individual roles are, including the role of the clinical lead on the team. Moreover, the clinical governance of the team is not just about the clinical side of it. I mentioned the need for appropriate supervision and line management of the various professionals. Any registered discipline can lead a team, in certain respects such as operationally or in co-ordinating the work, and there have been examples in some areas or fields of practice where that has been the case. I would argue that can sometimes free up the person who has been otherwise identified as the clinical lead to focus more on his or her specialism. There is probably a need to explore that issue of the multidisciplinary team or to deal with it to some extent in the legislation. It is probably an Irish trait to some extent, whereby we feel we are all in the one boat, we are all buddies and so on, but there is a need for clarity.

Whether it is the co-ordinator, the operational lead or whoever - along with, clearly, the clinical lead - they need, in all scenarios, to be registered professionals. As Dr. Martin said, they should be not just a registered professional but someone who has been registered, and has experience, in the appropriate area. There is a possibility to tease that out further to ensure the multidisciplinary teams we end up with will work at the best capacity and utilise the various skills of the different members and the professions they come from.