Professor Pascal McKeown:

The European Union has created a window of opportunity for all EU member countries. The meeting took place in Budapest in July. Momentum is growing. As a constituent member of the European Society of Cardiology, we are aware of an enormous amount of advocacy that is going on in Brussels as well. If this European cardiovascular health plan is published in December, that will set a direction of travel for us, which will be underpinned by a national strategy. Essentially, we are trying to ensure that all patients across Europe have equity of access to good cardiovascular care. That window of opportunity is one we are pushing to try to ensure we get a cardiovascular health strategy for Ireland, which is linked to the European cardiovascular health plan.