Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentations, but they are not good for the blood pressure. What the witnesses are talking about is, in many ways, the blindingly obvious but we have to ask questions as to why this is not happening. What they are talking about is also the essence of Sláintecare. One would imagine that at this stage we would have learned lessons. They identified the main causes of cardiovascular disease, most of which are outside of the health services. Why are we not tackling those issues?

Is a chronic illness programme in place in the cardiovascular area? What is the leadership in all of this? The IHF and Croí, as community-based patient organisations, play a critical role. Where is the leadership on this at the Department or HSE level? Why do we have such an overly medical model? The witnesses mentioned the personal burden. This also imposes an economic burden on the country and on the health service. The solutions are obvious. Why are we not doing the obvious? Why are we not concentrating on prevention and doing those things that would make people of the risks involved? Why do we not have primary prevention, community-based healthcare, nurse-led programmes? I would like to know where the blockage is. Why are we not doing what we should?