Ms Brigid Quirke:

We appreciate that support for sustaining the primary health care projects. We had 40 primary health care projects; ten have closed down due to lack of funding. One issue is that a lot of the women work part-time because the projects engage many of them. Now, because of the changes in the minimum wage, the hours are being reduced. We are trying to see if their roles could be protected because they are making a contribution to the State.

We would appreciate some support around those issues. The Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, has agreed to re-establish the national Traveller health advisory committee, which produced the strategy. The new action plan for the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy, NTRIS, is obviously very important, but plans like this must be resourced. The Traveller health strategy, which was produced in 2002, had no resources. The recommendations there are still valid but were never implemented. We want an assurance that there will be implementation of strategies and an appropriate budget attached.