Dr. Mark White:

There are pockets of innovation. At the previous session we were led to believe that Ireland's best brains in terms of health service IT were in the room. I could not get an answer to the question that the Senator has just asked us as representatives of the charity sector.

There are pockets of innovation that have not translated into mainstream health service provision. There are many good ideas out there. A health passport for intellectual disability clients has been rolled out throughout the north west. As members can imagine, hospitalising a client or other person with an intellectual disability can be a very upsetting and difficult situation for the families and carers. A health passport system has been operating for the past four to five years in the north west. It could easily be translated throughout the country and would make a big difference to the lives of people with an intellectual disability who find themselves in a health crisis.

I reiterate the point made by Dr. Kennan that data are everything, particularly when it comes to research. We need joined-up data. People think of health service research as being experiments in laboratories. The vast majority of health service research done in the UK and elsewhere in Europe is actually done on data. When one has real data that are meaningful and a full version of the truth, one can uncover the health services, the therapeutics and the world of tomorrow when it comes to health service provision.