Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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Let me ask a question from a cold, hard legislator's point of view. Ms Coyle talked about data, access to data and ethnic identifiers, which matters have come up at meetings of the health committee several times. In fairness, they have arisen at meetings of several committees I used to sit on. I am referring to the deficit in data collection. To someone like me, who would go to a committee meeting and refer to the number in need, the lack of data is an important issue.

I remember a meeting about Travellers at the Joint Committee on Health where there was mention of research done in the last decade about getting staff members to ask questions about ethnic identifiers. It required a huge amount of training because staff were uncomfortable. They felt it was not appropriate to ask about ethnic identifiers. Do the witnesses have thoughts about the type of data we need? I know we need ethnic identifiers. However, as a number of witnesses said, people fit into multiple categories. What kind of training do we need for staff, and what staff need to be trained? Obviously, everybody in the HSE should be trained, but local authorities, Deputies and Senators are often a bit of a black hole in terms of information because we do not often get them in front of committees. The county council is a key point of access for a lot of people. I am interested in the lack of data. Do the witnesses feel they have enough understanding of the cohort they are serving?