Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte romhaibh ar fad chuig an gcomhchoiste seo. I have only brief questions relating to the whole area of skills and training, on which the witnesses have touched already. My questions are two-pronged. I love the idea that the IPH is behind specialist training on the island of Ireland. I would like to get a sense of the volume of professionals in the pipeline; those who are coming down the track. The witnesses have identified a number of the challenges we are going to face in respect of general public health, including factors such as ageing, addiction and so on. Is there a healthy pipeline of professionals there at the moment? Is it seen as an attractive career? What sorts of steps are being taken to attract not only the clinical professionals, who have been mentioned, but also the more analytical and supporting professions? I do mean "supporting" because those roles are intrinsic, but the witnesses know what I am getting at. I am talking about the associated professions that are non-clinical but are equally as intrinsic.

Will the witnesses talk a bit about the cross-Border element of the overall training provision? One thing the IPH has done well is the creation of a large academic public health community of people who talk about and discuss their research at the conferences the witnesses have described. The fabric that knits that together is the relationships that are built among the practitioners who work on a public health basis. Perhaps the witnesses would say something about the training and how to embed that fabric into the training that is provided for the specialist public health side of things.

The following question arises from ignorance more than anything else. We are facing an issue with public health nurses because of demographics. Is that something that is within the IPH's wheelhouse, or in which it has an interest? That relates to career attractiveness. The pandemic has brought into focus, on this part of the island and in Northern Ireland, the need for a public health discipline in its own right. It has been brought to prominence in that regard. I would like to hear generally about how the witnesses are thinking about recruitment to that discipline and continuing to enhance it, and how we underpin that fabric to ensure an all-island discipline from cradle to grave, for want of a better expression.