Ms Colette Kelleher:

We would like to put what we do on a firm and sustainable footing. Relative to the other group we are well funded with the service level agreement we have with the Probation Service and the city council, as well as the funding we receive from private insurers. It is always a concern and a worry, and it affects our ability to travel in confidence. We have been here and we will be here a long time. It is about having resources comparable to what we are doing.

As I said, people are providing services in the health system around cardiology or stroke care and those services can be relied on because they are properly funded. They can retain the best people possible. We do that but it is not something of which are fully confident because of the vagaries of the way public funding goes. We would like that process to be on a more sustainable footing, although we are grateful for what we have relative to what others have. We work really well with our partners, who are also subject to the variations in public funding.

The Government should prioritise this as a firm part of the health service and have a funding line commensurate with the need that exists and the work that needs to be done in order for people to be able to access services at the point they need them. We must be able to support them and their families inside and outside of treatment and beyond. It should be sustainable and it is probably the most important aspect of this. As I said, we are not complaining because we know that relative to others we are publicly funded but it would be great not to worry about the money for the energy bills. We know we will manage and we always do but it would be good if that was not a worry. We would prefer our worries to be simply about the people in the treatment programme and their families. We would like to put our energy into that. I am not sure doctors in Cork University Hospital worry about the electricity bills; they worry about doing a good piece of surgery, which is correct. We would like to be in the same position.