Ms Siobhán McArdle:

We always want more money. The €10 million allocation for primary care services is going into the structure we have described. Each year, including this year, we have applied for additional funding under social inclusion. Each year, we receive small amounts of funding in addition to that €10 million from the Dormant Accounts Fund. We would welcome any increase in funding. We know there has been a dedicated increase in funding for Traveller mental health initiatives.

However, the Traveller primary healthcare units model we have described has real potential to be used to assist the wider care group. For instance, the same group of people is being asked to work on health promotion or mental health initiatives. Additional investment in the area would help us to increase capacity, allow us to sustain the number of people working in the area and help us to grow and expand the work that is being done. We would welcome any such increase. We do a lot with what we have. We outlined in our statement the wide range of initiatives being carried out through our projects and the Traveller healthcare units nationally. That demonstrates very good progress and outcomes for the amount of money we have. We acknowledge that we are not there yet; this is a journey. We would welcome any further investment.

The Senator asked about a siloed approach. It is important to state that the network or structure we have described is not about a replacement or siloed health service but, rather, about having a place where we can support people to access health services. It is not a separate service. The aim is to ensure that people from all communities, including the Traveller community, are enabled to access health services. Our data show that the value of the Traveller networks and projects is that many people from the Traveller community rely on them as their first point of contact because they trust the information provided by their peers. That is a very important part of health service delivery.