Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

Absolutely. All the Deputy's concerns are very important. We are talking about lives, and it is very important that we remember that one life lost is one too many. We have to do what we can to save lives and make sure we work with what we have and the services we have. We have to make sure that we deliver the services we can deliver and that people who want to access them can do so. We also have to work with their families. We have to make sure we have services there to help families. It is a matter of all of us working together. Like the Deputy, I understand that we need to put those services in place.

The Deputy spoke about the Cork homeless hub. That is being worked on. As I said at the meeting, there is a commitment from my Department for funding for the homeless hub. I have requested a meeting with the HSE. I hope to meet with it as soon as possible to try to get more information on this. As the Deputy said, a homeless hub would be another really important step forward for Cork.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. As he said, it is a matter of services, how we deliver them and how we make sure we save lives. Working together, we need to achieve that. I thank him for his question.

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