Ms Jennie McShannon:

I thank the joint committee for inviting us to this hearing. I will make some concluding remarks which will draw on the comments of Dr. Tilki.

She referred to the need for us to continually engage the policy makers and people who influence decisions and to our work within the community to address these health concerns. It is very much a continuous job. The regular turnover of policy makers in specific health areas makes it a difficult task. It is also made more difficult by the fact that it is increasingly difficult to secure funding for or generate discussion about the lack of access to services for the Irish and other ethnic groups.

In response to these health and interlinked social care issues, we need a combined approach. This entails continual lobbying of the various government departments, such as Public Health England, and of the parliamentary committees, such as the all-party parliamentary groups on dementia, cancer or cardiovascular disease, to press for Irish health concerns and to make the case for the Irish dimension to be included in policy and practice. We also work closely with the leading not-for-profit organisations in the United Kingdom, such as Bowel Cancer UK and the Alzheimer's Society to enable and pressurise them to make the case for us.

We work extensively with the local Irish community press, Irish TV and radio in Britain to raise awareness of health concerns within the community, starting conversations that are usually avoided within the community and paving the way for more open dialogue and action on the more serious health issues. A large part of our work, especially that funded through the emigrant support programme, is to work directly with the front-line Irish support services to develop their capacity to provide health focused initiatives and to challenge poor access at a local level, working in partnership with local health charities and developing activities which reduce the health risks. Many of the more professional organisations that make up our membership are dogged in their efforts to engage local health commissioners and commissioning groups and go to them armed with the data, the reports and the health fact sheets we can provide to them.

I know time is limited, but I would like to re-emphasise how important it is that we harness our culture and that our support is a way of generating better health. We can harness our culture as an end in itself. Bringing Irish people together in cultural settings appropriate to their age and interests contributes to their well-being in itself, but it is also a means to an end. It is a way to get people to together initially, but it is also a way to get them then to avail of the many activities beneficial to their physical and mental health.

Our organisation, Irish in Britain, works in partnership with the front-line Irish cultural and community support services to create what we believe is a full and comprehensive response to these long-standing and emerging health needs. We are primarily funded by the Irish Government in the face of a chronic lack of funding alternatives in Britain. We work together to do our best. The Irish voluntary and community sector which makes up our membership is extremely grateful to the Government for its sustained support, despite the difficult economic times Ireland has been through.