Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the reasons Tallaght hospital was included was that the community asked for a report. We were trying to get a sense of what was happening around the country. Tallaght hospital experienced both the winter vomiting bug and Covid-19 and that was the big challenge it faced. As the CEO said, that is also happening in other places.

I welcome the members of the Neurological Alliance of Ireland, NAI, to the Gallery. They came in to the audiovisual room in Leinster House a number of months ago. What impressed many of us was the number of organisations involved in the Neurological Alliance of Ireland. Its representatives spoke about the considerable numbers of Irish citizens who are impacted by neurological events. There were different people on the front table. For some, it was almost a cry for help. They were saying that, unlike in other sections of our health organisation, there was a plan in place. This was the point they were making. A plan was in place but the funding was not following through. When representatives of the NAI came before the committee, they made the point that funds committed to were not released under the HSE service plan. They asked why that was the case. They pointed to other services for which funding seemed to be available. Neurology seemed to be the poor relation even though it has had a considerable impact. Nearly 1 million people have been impacted by a neurological event. Why has that funding not been released? Is there politics at play? Why is it the case? I do not know and could not answer.