Mr. Fergal Black:

I will pick up on the issue of hepatitis C. The intention is that the treatment plan will be devised over an eight-week period and, as the Deputy points out, it will be extremely cost effective in the management of hepatitis C. Based on our discussions with Professor Aiden McCormick, the lead for the national hepatitis C treatment programme, the intention is to have a particular tailored programme for people in prison. The Deputy is quite right. One of the difficulties that bedevils us is we have a population of people in custody whose health status does not compare favourably with the general community. Therefore, taking them out to external secondary services for tertiary care is very costly in terms of the resources we need to assign, in terms of drawing staff away from prison. We are very anxious to develop any clinical services we can provide within the prison. This is one of the services we feel we can pilot successfully, it is hoped in Cork and Limerick, and extend nationally subsequently in a very cost-effective manner.