Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I apologise, I was just chasing up one or two bits for him there. I hear what he is saying about the campaigners and their demands for the process to move more quickly, and that is exactly what we have done. The process that was set out in 2021 was for the review to start in 2026. We were going to wait for five years to gather sufficient evidence. The review would then take a year, let us say. That means we would be into 2027. I have compressed all of that. We are now at a point in 2024 that we can do it, but the initial original timeline was for three years from now. We have accelerated it by three years. Having that working group in place in the coming weeks will be of assistance.

As with any advocacy in healthcare, there is an urgency on behalf of those who are campaigning. I want to say to them very clearly that we have heard them and that is why we have accelerated the process by several years. We have a good report, and we will have this expert working group in place in the coming weeks.

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