Mr. Joseph Hughes:

I thank the committee for having us. The ground-breaking work done by Rory's family and the Irish Sepsis Foundation has been a great source of information and help for us as a family. Ms Phoenix will take over shortly. I have a cognitive impairment and my speech might be a little slurred or slow, but I will state a few things before handing over to Ms Phoenix.

Lil Red's Legacy Sepsis Awareness Campaign was set up in 2018 as a direct result of our son's sudden and preventable death from sepsis. We never heard of sepsis before it stole our son's life. It is now our mission to empower the public with the knowledge of how to recognise the biggest killer in the world. Lil Red's campaign came before the Joint Committee on Public Petitions in early March this year. We got great feedback from that and were very happy with it. The HSE were called before that committee shortly after that in April. We have been in Leinster House twice to give sepsis awareness presentations. We were very happy to have that opportunity.

The Irish public are being denied and deprived of a national sepsis awareness campaign that is available in other countries. Does the Irish public not deserve this? Of course they do. Responsibility and accountability need to be taken by the HSE. The information needs to be out there. There is no point having it on websites. It should be in parents' hands.

I am sorry; I am getting a little flustered and I will hand over to Ms Phoenix.