Professor Charles Gallagher:

Yes, I agree totally. Mr. O'Dwyer has worked hard on this. With the development of the new national children's hospital, it is crucial that we have the resources and staff we need for cystic fibrosis. I have been and will be working with the paediatric community to have this done in a way that fits patients' and families' needs to provide the best care that we have. As in all of these issues, however - including our meeting here today - the devil is in the detail. We are talking about bringing together a community that has been in different hospitals until now and that must be focused on the newborn child who is being screened, but also on the older child who has ongoing health issues. It will encompass that totality of outpatient day care and inpatient care. I agree totally that it is a high priority for the HSE, for me and for the CF community.

Let us be clear that getting it right in cystic fibrosis is not a matter of a one-off, it is every single day. We want to keep people as healthy as they can be in childhood, adolescence and adult life. That is why there is continuity. Over the years, before the initiation of the HSE's cystic fibrosis clinical programme, we have had a coming together of all the CF community, including doctors and nurses throughout Ireland, to come up with care guidelines. I hope that will follow on quickly. It is beginning right now.