Mr. Patrick Burke:

They do no more than GPs and pharmacists do. We receive advocacy from the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association, the Irish Cancer Society and individuals' relatives. Once an individual has made an application there is a concern about how quickly that will be dealt with. We receive representations from a number of areas asking about the status of applications. In the older system there were circumstances where an application was treated cradle to grave by one individual locally and they could be approached by anybody making representations. In the current system duties are separated. We have different people at post level and review level. We have data captured and put into a central engine. No one individual would have oversight of an application process from cradle to grave. Separate to that we have a call centre, customer support and a dedicated Oireachtas line. We receive representations from Oireachtas Members via that line and they ask about the status of applications, what an unsuccessful applicant should do next, whether they have missed something. They could be trying to help the individual.