Teresa Costello (Fianna Fail)
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I am a first-time Senator from the constituency of Dublin South-West. I was previously a councillor in Tallaght Central. I am very happy to be on this committee. My passion grew from my experience of having been diagnosed with breast cancer at 36. I have come through the health system and seen flaws but also positives. In talking about accountability, we need to be accountable when we are talking about the positives. We need to educate people on what is available and what is not available. It is fine to highlight what is not available but by not highlighting what is available, we are doing people an injustice. I am not into point scoring; I am into the greater good and achieving change. Obviously, I have an interest in breast cancer health. I run Ireland's largest online support group for that. I regard myself as having my finger on the pulse of what is going on in that sector.

Having said that, there are other illnesses and I will also focus on rare diseases and dementia. Health is an ever-evolving sector and the needs are also evolving. At some points we are not actually doing stuff wrong; we may just not be on top of things, especially with new medications coming out. We need to make sure we get access to what we need as quickly as possible. We also need to keep an eye on all health concerns. I know we all have our individual passions on health but if something lands at somebody's door that we do not have a passion for as such, we need to be mindful of dealing with it and being passionate about that as well.