Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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I thank the witnesses, particularly Ms Murphy, for their useful opening statements. It is difficult when people have to come and tell their stories in order to exact change, but it is very much appreciated.

The witnesses have all touched on my core question. Ms Murphy said, for example, that she would be faced with “We are not qualified to deal with you”. That was the phrase she was hearing. Ms McGillivary talked about staffing, retention and all of those things. I know how much work the witnesses are doing on the ground in Finglas, Cabra and Dublin 1 and what that means to the people there. I refer to the broadness of the factors that are coming into play here, such as homelessness, criminalisation and dealing with people coming in and out of prison, who are then being turned away. How do we staff or make sure that people behind the door do not get to say “We are not qualified to deal with you”? I know this all interacts with Sláintecare and Sharing the Vision. Is that peer to peer? Is that people who have experienced it or is it that every single medical professional – I suspect I know that answer – needs specific training in this? How do we get to a place where no matter what medical professional or peer-to-peer support a person is getting, nobody says to them “I am not qualified to deal with this”? My core question is how we get there.