Ms Sharon Foley:

The Deputy would have seen some of the resistance to the chief health and social care professional officer. It is a very slow journey to bring any new medical or allied health professional into the Departments. We have not engaged with the Department yet except with the Minister last November. His response at the time was that he wanted to see a strategic action plan. It is our belief that the minute that strategic action plan is developed, one would want an infrastructure to drive that. It is not just within the Department of Health. It is also with the HSE. When we engage with the Department of Health or the HSE, we have to go to several different areas and that makes it very complex. It is going to become even more complex when the HSE is divided into six regional health areas.