Mr. Marcus Keane:

From my experience of having spoken to medical professionals, not at all.

We asked them what were their greatest concerns in the context of Ireland being hepatitis C-free by 2030. Their number one concern in that regard was reaching everybody who needs to be tested for hepatitis C, More of them were concerned with that issue than the other four issues put together. They are absolutely aware of that challenge and the need to meet it. That came back strongly through the consultation. What also came back was the understanding that the system in place at the moment is not sufficient to meet the needs of everybody who needs to be tested.

The Deputy asked about the advice for members of the community who may be listening to these proceedings, may be hearing about this for the first time and may be concerned. When we spoke to the public, we saw that there is a big knowledge gap. More than 50% of people did not know what hepatitis C is and only one third knew where to get tested. What people could do is to go to the website of the national treatment programme, which has a list of characteristics relating to people who might be at risk. They could then take action based on that and follow the advice in respect of getting tested, as Ms Perry stated. However, even if everybody in the country who needs to be tested did that and got tested, the system would struggle, for several reasons, to be able to link everybody in to treatment effectively. To go back to the Deputy's original question, the medical professionals to whom we spoke were acutely aware of both those challenges, namely, reaching everybody and, if that is achieved, providing treatment to them all.