Professor Frank Casey:

The Cathaoirleach said that we need to look at what we do in the wider health service. I hope that what will come from this process is that someone will take ownership of that. I do not know whether it will be a body or a committee, but someone must take ownership and identify key areas for collaboration, perhaps key areas of medicine, without trying to cover everything. That may involve an academic research project with the universities. As everyone has alluded to, research is important. One of the benefits of the all-island approach is that we get a critical mass and approach the healthcare of the population of Ireland. At the end of the day, if we are going to produce research, we are going to have to compete internationally for funding from funding bodies. We cannot expect governments to support us. For the international research bodies that fund us, we have to make ourselves competitive.

I will come back to the data side of things. We need the information. We have been able to share imaging information on a live basis quite easily to manage cases.

There are families with inherited conditions who live on both sides of the Border. Some relatives are being cared for in one jurisdiction or the other and the information is not joined up. That is an example of where data can help us. That is going to be key.