John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The first comment I wish to make relates to the three presentations. I thank the witnesses for the time they have taken. They obviously listened to the issues raised at the previous meetings and have tried to address them. That was the purpose of the exercise rather than having a general discussion. I thank the witnesses sincerely for taking the time to address those issues.

I was taken by the fact that a great deal is happening. If we read all the material submitted, we could sit here and say that we are doing a great job. All that has to be balanced, however, by the lived experiences of the people who attended the committee some weeks ago. I am not suggesting the services are not in place but the challenges those people have found along the way need to be considered. That was one of the reasons for the exercise rather than simply talking to advocates. The idea was to include the individuals themselves. I thank the witnesses sincerely for the presentations and for the way they went about addressing the questions.

The next session will allow colleagues to ask questions. I propose to allow each member up to ten minutes to direct questions because three different Departments are represented at the meeting. I will start with Deputy Brady. He has ten minutes initially. He can stop and start but I ask him, please, to be specific in who he addresses his questions to because I am conscious that we have representatives from three different Departments.