Mr. Chris Macey:

Over the past decade our acute stroke services have improved significantly from a low base. We have become good at saving lives from stroke. We are putting a lot of expertise and resources into that area, but we are squandering people's recovery because they are being abandoned at the hospital gates without any access, unless they can afford to pay for it themselves, to the basic rehabilitation programmes they need such as physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and psychology. This is about a brain injury. There are three whole-time equivalents in the country to help people recover from that injury. They are some of the issues.

The issue is gross underfunding and the sense people have of abandonment in the community. We need to establish the number of stroke survivors in Ireland. That will require a proper needs survey and a plan to roll it out. We have a plan for everything in Ireland these days, but people are being discharged after stroke without a right to a discharge plan. That is crazy and it needs to be addressed.