Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ms Perry answered that question very well. It has been eye-opening for me because I have spoken with addicts in Dublin, down by needle exchanges and methadone clinics. I always assumed that those one may meet outside one of those centres are born-and-bred Dublin people but many are not. Their addiction journey has taken them to the capital out of desperation and because the supports offered in Dublin are better. There is no regional support network of any significance around Ireland. One would often meet people from my county of Clare, or from Offaly or Cork, outside those centres here in Dublin. The accents are very different. One would expect the guys and girls one meets there to be Dublin people but that is not the case.

As regards those who undergo testing, obviously a test captures a moment in time. A person may test negative but have a positive test a few months later. How well does all that feed into the process? I ask that because I recently became aware of a person in my home county who had cancer - this is a different realm of healthcare - but is now going through a totally different treatment regime for a different health issue. It was only when the family stated while he or she was being discharged that this poor unfortunate person had previously had cancer that the care team became aware that was the case.

It is unbelievable that at times in Ireland people have been tested or have had a diagnosis confirmed but that record does not necessarily travel with them. Much of that is due to the fact that we are still on a paper system and digital records are not shared between health services. Our test results are not uploaded to some central database so that when somebody is admitted to hospital, that information is at everyone's disposal.