Mr. Chris Macey:

I will come in on that. We ran a major TV campaign in 2011 on FAST, the stroke warning signs. It brought Ireland's level of awareness up to the highest in the world. The call to action part increased a lot as well but probably not as much as we would have wanted. It went up to about 60%. In the most recent campaign we focused on why minutes matter and why you just have to get in and get treated as quickly as possible. There is nothing else to do. The average stroke destroys 2 million brain cells a minute. There was an 11% increase in awareness following that campaign, which was really good because it was only a radio campaign. We only had the funding for a radio campaign. It was a really good trial of something that needs to be a lot bigger. This needs to be a rolling TV-based campaign that ensures that people get to hospital as quickly as possible. The median presentation time for stroke is now just under three hours, which is just not good enough because with literally every minute that is saved more of the brain is saved. We are talking about 2 million brain cells every minute. Therefore, what we are asking the Department of Health and the national stroke programme to do now is to support a rolling FAST campaign that hardwires this awareness into the national consciousness.