Ms Eibhlin Mulroe:

If I can come in there as well, within this group we all share that value. We have also experienced it just like Professor Lawler and Professor Gallagher have outlined. In Cancer Trials Ireland, we have a patient-consultant committee which is a sub-group of our board. The chair of that committee, Patrick Kivlehan, is on our board, so it is involved in decision making around everything we do. Tomorrow our disease-specific study group meetings are happening with all our researchers and doctors, in gynaecological cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer. We have a patient advocate in each of those. They ask questions and drive the agenda for the trials we are doing within Cancer Trials Ireland. I am wearing these colours today in memory of someone who is an example of how patients are driving the desire to see more research in this country. Pat Smullen, Lord rest his soul, was a very famous jockey. He had pancreatic cancer and there were no options in the clinic for him. He talked to us and said he wanted to help Cancer Trials Ireland. We now have four clinical trials in pancreatic cancer because of the money Pat raised for our work through the horse racing community.

There are a lot of those examples where the public do not just want to know more about research, they want to drive it and drive investment in it. It is something that is growing and growing. We are going to see it in this group we have set up. We know we are going to get support from the public. We have done market research on public attitudes to clinical trials and 80% of the public support clinical trials and want to see further investment in it. They also support sharing their data for the benefit of research and for the benefit of future treatments for patients and the public. Mr. Molloy asked some really good questions and what happens when the treatments are found. There is a whole argument around the costs of that and patients accessing that. Professor Lowery made the point that health literacy is not the same for everyone. We do our very best to reach out to the community. That is a commitment we will make going forward as a group that the public engagement will be important. That is different to the patient engagement. It is about both.