Professor Cathal O'Donnell:

Given his background, one thing that may be of interest to Deputy Daly about the community paramedics is that we are working with the Irish College of General Practitioners to try to develop a shared vision for how community paramedics might work. We are very conscious of the challenges general practice has now and what is coming down the line, particularly in rural Ireland, and we think community paramedics might at least be part of that solution. I know Dr. Diarmuid Quinlan, Dr. Gary Stack and Dr. Illona Duffy are colleagues of his and we have been working really well with those. We hope to have something on that by the end of this year. It will be very helpful for general practice in rural Ireland.