Professor Deirdre Heenan:

It is my strong view that we need a strategic framework in order to agree priorities, objectives and funding. What we have had to date is all sorts of promises where politicians and policymakers tell us that health is motherhood and apple pie and who could argue against it. Six months or 12 months later, however, we are no further forward.

That is because no named individual is responsible for taking this agenda and running with it. Neither of the two health Ministers will voluntarily take on this job, probably because both of them are stretched to their limits. The shared island is a perfect vehicle to ensure health becomes a priority. It is not just about a little project that is time-limited and then finished, and does not become mainstreamed.

Looking at it from the North, there is a view that when both Governments were co-operating and working together on this project in the Border regions, it was responsible for some remarkably innovative work but that work was largely project-specific and not mainstream. When the work on eating disorders was finished, it was finished. The project was a useful way for both Governments to say, "Look over there. That's what we're doing. We've ticked that box. We've answered your question." It is not answering the question; it is project-specific, EU-funded and in the Border regions. The word missing in all of this is "ambition". If you look-----