Ms Nicola Perry:

Absolutely, yes. We should start from the point that there is good reason that the services tend to be centred in Dublin, aside from it being the capital. My colleague, Mr. Keane, referred to five of the eight hepatology units in the country being in Dublin. Clearly, that is part of the issue. Second, there is the issue of what clinicians refer to as the burden of disease. Approximately 70% of those who have hepatitis C - known or unknown - are based in the Dublin region or on the east coast. That makes sense.

In the context of the regions, unless one has a clear understanding of how many people in a region need testing or care relating to their treatments, one does not know what resources need to be put into the regions. Each of the regions is different. Let us take the south east, for example. It has a profile and a population but it does not look like what we have here in Dublin. We would need to know, for example, whether another clinical nurse specialist is needed, or an additional consultant. There are no consultants currently based in the south east. One would have to know whether there is a need to employ a peer worker. We need to know the numbers with which we are dealing. There is no point throwing resources at an area unless one is clear about what is the burden of disease. That is important not only for the individual being able to access treatment when it is needed, it is also important that we use those data to plan the services and what they will look like.