Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses, Joe, Doireann and Charlie. I first met Sean when he was rapping at the Finglas Festival. We had a programme and many kids on and off the stage. Sean's group was so popular that they ran out of time but kept going and going. Of course, we rushed them off the stage. I said to Karen and Joe that I wish I had not rushed them off the stage that day because we did not know how little time he had ahead. I never got to know Sean the way I have Karen and Joe, all the family and all the lads who were friends with Sean. Joe is here today not because of any support I have given him. It was Joe who discovered the petitions process on the Oireachtas website, made the application and had that determination. Anybody who knows anything about sepsis will know that Joe's determination and Karen's patience for Joe's determination have been superb. That comes at a cost for anybody who has lost a child. They are giving time that they should maybe spend on healing themselves so that other people do not go through the same experience.

I pay tribute to Ms Doireann O'Mahony too, who, independently of all that, has seen the pain that many other families have gone through with sepsis and has established the Irish Sepsis Foundation. It will be interesting to hear more about that from her own perspective.

Remarkably, two or three years after Sean died, my uncle passed away with sepsis. His wife did not know the symptoms and was not able to recognise them. With all of the awareness that had been created in Finglas because of Sean's death, one would think that everybody would have good awareness of it, but it is so difficult to spot the signs and symptoms. That is why a public awareness campaign is so important. I acknowledge that the Minister has agreed to meet Joe later this month and I think that is important.

I tabled parliamentary questions in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 regarding what was spent on sepsis. The Cathaoirleach is right that the sum of money involved is very small. There are two elements to this. Small amounts of money are spent on leaflets, t-shirts and stands, but Joe would say that it is hard to see the evidence of where they have been used and what they have been used for. Large amounts of money have been allocated. Last year, €47,000 was spent on a general practitioner sepsis lead for 12 months. In 2019, €87,000 was spent on an e-learning and education system. While GPs have been equipped and awareness created, it is hard for a family that has been so invested in this for the last five years to see the practical impact of this spending and I would like the HSE to explain it. It is not just for Karen and Joe. There is a wider group that Ms Doireann O'Mahony and many other people who have worked with her have established. I pay tribute to all the witnesses for that.

The television advertisement is one symptom of a public awareness campaign. I have no doubt that the witnesses would like to see far more. I see they created their own radio advertisement, which I am sure was expensive for them but would probably be inexpensive for the HSE. Will the witnesses talk to us about the Irish Sepsis Foundation and where they see a public awareness campaign going, including television advertisements?