Ms Breda O'Donoghue:

I am aware of Traveller nurses but they do not self-identify for obvious reasons. I do not know of any GPs or doctors.

I wish to respond to what was said about the price tag and the closing of the gap. We have two full-time equivalent primary healthcare workers in Cork city, who work part time. We have four workers who work part time. It is not enough. We are not reaching all of our community and we are not able to do enough for the community. What we have is a good number of people that we have trained over the years who have done development courses but they do not have academic skills that would allow them to go for a job interview. They have not been to UCC.

I would always be one to bat for experience. I am referring to where somebody with lived experience of certain circumstances cannot work with people in such circumstances because he or she does not have an academic qualification. For us, that is a major challenge at present.