Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I do not think any of us on the committee have let go of the issue of advertising and vaping flavours being specifically targeted towards teenagers. We will continue to follow up on the matter.

I want to get clarity because we have witnesses coming in on some of the numbers. It was stated in a previous contribution regarding the years in which there is a shortfall, and notwithstanding the aftermath of Covid, that the shortfall is in the region of €20 million. We got additional information from the Department. It stated that €54.1 million in new development funding has been allocated since 2017. The Department suggests that between 2017 and 2022 there were specific packages of funding towards recruitment. I invite our guests to unpack this for me. The document provided by the Department states, "New development funding from 2017 to 2022 has been used to recruit an additional 742 staff to national cancer services."

There is no update for 2023 or 2024. Can I infer that there is no stand-alone funding targeting recruitment issues?