Professor Eamon O'Shea:

It has been five years since we conducted our research. It is interesting that older people, in particular, were willing to speak about death in general but when it came to being specific about their own deaths, there was reluctance on their part and among care staff in residential settings to address this issue. We are learning how to speak openly about these issues but until we get to that point the information deficit will remain. Where we have an information deficit or a vacuum, we can sometimes get bad policy. This is not necessarily because what is going on is wrong but perhaps it is not what people prefer or need at that particular time. That is related to resource allocation. Sometimes we get bad resource allocation decisions because we are not concentrating on what is really important. I do not have extensive expertise in this area but, from an economic point of view, it is important in the last months, weeks and hours of dying. That is what we have to address in terms of the broader strategy if we are to understand these relationships. It is particularly important to get resources to flow to where they can best be utilised.