Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to go back to one of the responses that Deputy McAuliffe received in the context of the awareness campaign and the funding the HSE says its spends on sepsis awareness: in 2018 it was €16,500; in 2019 it was €130,000; in 2020 it was nearly €3,500; in 2021 it was €27,300; and in 2022 it was €51,000. In the response received from the HSE it breaks down the amounts spent in those years. I notice it funded a national sepsis summit with €1,800. I note also from research that there was a sixth summit held on sepsis in 2019, but the HSE does not appear to have funded it or it does not include it in its funding.

Is Mr. Hughes aware of, or was he given information or is he satisfied, with the information produced by the HSE on awareness of sepsis? I am looking here at €12,000 spent in 2018 on a display stand and brochures. Going back, there is also e-learning support of €87,000 in 2019. These are quite considerable sums. Television advertising is expensive as are radio and national campaigns, but perhaps the information around sepsis and the awareness campaign it is currently undertaking is not satisfactory and is not reaching the cohort.

Mr. Hughes mentioned talking to youngsters in clubs and in sports organisations. If all of that money is being spent by the HSE but is not aiming for its intended target about raising full awareness, then apart from just a national TV or radio campaign, what else can be done? If we as a committee are to write to the HSE and ask it in here to include and to mobilise Mr, Hughes's suggestions around a proper campaign, it would be helpful for us to hear Mr. Hughes's thoughts about the existing campaigns and the vast amount of money the HSE is spending. Perhaps Mr. Hughes will come back to me on that.