Mr. Damien McCallion:

As part of the work on electronic health, we have met with a lot of the CEOs of the life sciences sector, IDA Ireland and so on. One of the issues is getting data and the other is access to professionals to do the trials, as well as the framework around that. There is work going on at the moment to look at how we might use even the data we have. We will have every image in the country by the end of this year when St. Vincent's goes live. Every X-ray, CT and MRI scan will be in one national database. That will apply to lots of modalities, including cancer and other disease groups. We have registries. We have some information while we wait to roll out the electronic health records. We want to support the sector to do research, whether private or in academia, because that maintains employment, maintains tax income and allows governments to invest in the health system because a lot of our tax take comes from that sector. We are keen to work with people on that aspect as well as on the clinical trials, as referred to by Professor Ó Laoide. An interim report with interim recommendations is publicly available. The final recommendations will, I hope, set out a better framework with which to move forward. We have an interest in that as well for the reasons I have stated.