Ms Eibhl?n Mulroe:

Politically, as well, we have to reflect on the fact that during the pandemic, Ned Sharpless, who was then director of the US National Cancer Institute in Washington, and the adviser to the President of the United States on cancer research, signed that memorandum of understanding again for the cancer consortium between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Our ministers for health were all involved in that. We now have the implementation committee set up with the departments.

Parallel to that, I was in San Francisco at the weekend for one of the big cancer conferences around genitourinary and prostate cancers, and Ned Sharpless was speaking at it. I asked him how serious the United States was about investing in international collaborations in research. He talked about Joe Biden's Moonshot 2. As members all know, President Biden is very interested in cancer research, and his driver is to cut - and we have talked about this already - the number of cancer deaths in the US in half over the next 25 years. There is a willingness there to work on an international level.

As we all know, he is very interested in cancer research. As we talked about already, his goal for the next 25 years is to cut in half the number of deaths from cancer in the US. There is a willingness in the US to work on an international level. They have to justify that to the American taxpayer, obviously, but there is a recognition that cancer has no borders and that governments need to work together. All governments in the world are putting money into cancer research. If we start to collaborate as we do in the AICRI, and we do more of that with the US National Cancer Institute, what does that mean for a patient in Belfast or Dublin? It would be amazing for us to be able to organise in Ireland some of the trials that happen in America. Some of the trials Professor Lowery worked on in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are not available here in Ireland, and they could be. We have the talent here, but it is about having the infrastructure as well. We need to get to that point. We need the committee's help in terms of advocacy and the conversations that I am sure will be had with the US, especially over the March period. There is a real team of people and talent here. There is also the political will because that memorandum of understanding has been signed.