Alison Comyn (Fianna Fail)

I thank witnesses for the presentations. There is an incredibly impressive array of expertise and qualifications. I am so glad we are not facing them for "University Challenge" this morning. Most importantly, I thank the witnesses for saving lives and of course I wish Siobhan all the best in her survival story. We all know that cancer and congenital heart disease do not recognise borders, whether that be age, race, religion, gender or bank balance. This is all about saving lives wherever one lives. I live in County Louth, a Border county, so I have seen the benefits of those cross-Border initiatives. I see one of my friends here, Ciaran Briscoe, who does incredible work in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. If I heard correctly, I would welcome the fact that the paediatric cardiology centre will be visiting Drogheda. I hope that will happen and we can welcome that in the future.

We can really see that these initiatives are a legacy of the Good Friday Agreement, which, as has been said here before, is a living, breathing document. It is not something that was just signed 27 years ago and nothing has happened since. It is part of our jobs and it is a pleasure to see these things moving forward. When we look at the very stark statistic of one in two people being diagnosed with cancer, we can see that there is an impetus and there are deadlines to this as well. However, the witnesses also included some very heartening statistics which we can work with.

My colleagues have already asked some of my questions. I would like to dig a little bit deeper into some of the challenges. Professor Casey mentioned that one of the main barriers to change was the fear of disintegration of services in Belfast. Will he explain this a bit more?