Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I have an observation rather than a question. Committees often bring in experts to debate legislation but the witnesses who gave testimony today are the experts. They are the ones who have lived experience in this area. I have made many notes, as have many of us, and a couple of things have come up. Each and every one of the witnesses has a personal story and it takes a lot of bravery to come in here and tell it. The idea behind bringing people in like this was that we wanted people outside of here to see what the witnesses are going through. They are the gatekeepers of a broken service. We are very lucky that our committee does not play politics. We all take these issues personally. You can even hear it in our voices. We genuinely want to help.

I thank the witnesses. This session has been of great benefit to me and to this committee. As I have said, we are here to try to get things right. The only way to do that is to get expert advice. The witnesses have contributed to that today so I thank them again.