Mr. Mark O'Donnell:

A lot of it comes back to having a strategic approach in the first place. We do not have this. We need a national cardiovascular health strategy resourced with a proper implementation plan and backed up with the proper metrics and research. Key components of this are the cost–benefit analysis and the analysis of the economic impacts.

On the European aspect, there is an event on this week in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Some of our colleagues, and also some from the Irish Heart Foundation, are there. They are calling for a Europe-wide action plan for cardiovascular health, which currently does not exist. This is not just an Irish problem. The hope is that a European strategy will be put in place that will act as an overarching one for the national strategies of each of the member states. Significant work is ongoing in this regard. However, the economic aspect and the cost–benefit analysis cannot be considered in isolation. This would be symptomatic of the approach to date, which has very much entailed measures in isolation and has not been joined up or coherent. It is a question of overall strategic planning and implementation.