Ms Maureen O'Donnell:

I could be wrong but I believe the reason we have received no State funding before is that we have not actually made the case for getting State funding. This is the first time we are starting to come to this. The reason we are doing that is that ILFA at the moment is providing what is essentially a public service but we are doing it through funded donations and we think the State should pay for part of that. We are not asking to be entirely funded by the State but we would like to have a percentage of our income come from the State. I refer to the programmes we provide as a result of that - the education, advocacy and awareness programmes. Just a couple of weeks ago we had a patient information session which nearly 100 people attended. These are people who need information that we are giving them. They need to understand what the latest treatments are, they need to understand how the disease progresses and they need to be given advice on exercising. They may not be getting that where they live, so we are providing a vital service. Maybe Ms Cassidy would like to talk a little more about that.