Frances Black (Independent)

I sincerely thank both witnesses for coming in. Many of our upcoming discussions at this committee, particularly on health, will be the first of their kind, at least on this scale. In the spirit of that, we are aiming to achieve something that has not been done. That is what the vision is anyway. We know there is a huge gap in this space. There is no doubt about that. I would love to see us build that roadmap for all-island healthcare the witnesses spoke about, or at least lay the foundation for that. I know that is something they are asking for today, in particular.

I have a couple of questions for Professor Matthews. I will ask them all together so she will have time. She mentioned the different models for providing universal primary healthcare services and the contrast between the NHS and the HSE in delivering these services. Does she think the disparities are limiting our ability to build cross-Border initiatives? Are there any lessons to be learned from that? If there are any lessons, what are they?

In Professor Heenan's article, which she mentioned, and I love the idea of this, she proposed the establishment of an all-island health committee. It is an absolutely great idea to have an all-island health committee that could produce papers on possible areas of collaboration, such as procurement of services, staff training and the sharing of knowledge. Has any work at all been done on that since she published that paper?

I have a final question on the ESRI report that Professor Matthews shared with us. It was really helpful in understanding the primary care systems in both jurisdictions. The report acknowledged that the research was hindered by the lack of comparable data. One of the reasons for this was that many of the data sets report on the UK in its entirety rather than treating the four constituent countries separately, so health system metrics are measured differently. The report stated that alternative sources would be needed to study system level characteristics or indicators like workforce and expenditure. Have either Professor Heenan or Professor Matthews looked at this in more detail? Will they highlight specific areas or indicators that should be prioritised? Those are my questions. I have given them a lot there.