Ms Paula Leonard:

It is important that we are here today with this group of people. We often think, act and have policy in silos. It is important, as part of the destigmatisation of alcohol, that we start to look at it as a neurological condition rather than the underlying cause of the neurological condition. As a country, we absolutely need to address our problematic relationship with alcohol in the context of some of the figures Ms McMonagle has outlined. We need to look at the condition that is in front of us. Today's discussion has been welcome and I thank Deputy Pringle for his proposal that this committee would write formally to the HSE and the Department of Health.

Our other ask is that families have an opportunity to give a sense of things. Families are finding voice in Ireland for the very first time. It is not that we have a moral model in Ireland, we have no model at all. We have no diagnostic specialists and no guidelines for foetal alcohol spectrum disorders, FASD. We welcome being here and I thank the members of the committee for the opportunity.