David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a real concern about some of these national strategies. The previous cardiovascular strategy was a very good one, as Mr. Macey rightly said. We see across mental health and in different areas that plans, visions and strategies are put in place and we all buy into them but they rarely get implemented in full. It is often piecemeal and funding is at the whim of a Minister in any given budget. We will get to that in a moment in terms of the stroke strategy and cardiovascular strategy for 2024. When a comprehensive strategy is done and it is not even reviewed, never mind doing planning for the next one, that is a clear failing.

I acknowledge that the two groups before the committee have been writing to us for some time and when they appeared before us a number of years ago they made a similar request that we follow up with the HSE and the Department, which we did. Despite this, we are still waiting for a review that has been six years in the making and is sitting on the Minister's desk, there has been no review of the previous strategy and there is no sense of when the next strategy will come. That is unacceptable.

I will address the stroke strategy which offered some good news, I believed. We have a new national stroke strategy, again with lots of good stuff in it. It is perhaps too concentrated on the acute side again. What impact will the lack of any additional funding in budget 2024 have on the implementation of that stroke strategy?