Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know it may not have been a question the witnesses had expected this morning, but I would like some additional information because this is a body we became very much aware of during Covid. It did some excellent work and we are affiliated to it, but an Irish cancer strategy cannot exist in isolation, particularly when we are part of a wider European bloc. We saw during the Covid pandemic nations working together and funding together and science working together. Cancer does not adhere to international boundaries, unfortunately, so if there is something on the pan-European approach, a briefing note, that our committee could be circulated with, I would very much like to see it. This is all the more relevant given the conference Dublin will host in the next fortnight.

We have seen a lot of hospices over the decades having to go out and shake the bucket to raise money. There was an announcement last winter that Milford hospice, in the mid-west, was to become a recipient of State funding - I think it was €18 million to bring it under direct State funding - and that that was to fall into line in February of this year. Where is the HSE in terms of funding the operational costs of Milford hospice, and are there plans afoot to take other hospices into the HSE's funding net?