Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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In our earlier discussion, I was not trying to elicit how much funding Bodywhys is getting but I thank the witnesses for sharing that. I was looking for the information in the context of 180,000 people in Ireland who are affected by eating disorders, and up to 1,800 new cases occurring in Ireland each year. Bodywhys currently receives €420,000 in funding from the State. I want to compare this to the €460,000 the State and the Department of Health give to sponsor "Operation Transformation". I was very critical of that at the time. Basically, I felt it was public money that could have been spent better. I felt that people were being doubly taxed in that they were paying the licence fee and the Department of Health was also funding "Operation Transformation" to the tune of €460,000. The Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, has said that it costs, on average, €500,000 for an eating disorder hub. I am not sure if those figures are correct but that is the figure I received in reply to a parliamentary question. I am aware Bodywhys was quite critical of "Operation Transformation". Will the witnesses expand on that a little bit?