Irish Hospice Foundation Meets with the North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association to Discuss Palliative Care
"The national work of IHF provides insights into dying, death and bereavement which we believe are of value to the NSIPA and we thank the members for the opportunity to address them. We wanted to highlight the importance of palliative, end-of-life and bereavement care across all care settings, the value of compassionate conversations around advance care planning and the importance of recognising the role health care professionals play in delivering a palliative care approach.”
Following an invitation from the Ceann Comhairle, Deputy Verona Murphy, Irish Hospice Foundation recently presented to the North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association (NSIPA) about palliative care. On the 22nd of May 2026 the NSPIA met in the Seanad Chamber of Leinster House for the eleventh plenary session.
The Association provides a forum for discussions between Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas on issues of mutual interest. The assembly is co-chaired by Ceann Comhairle, Deputy Verona Murphy, and the Co-Chair, Speaker Edwin Poots MLA.
The meeting discussed paediatrics cancer, palliative care and paediatric pathology. Members heard from Janet Tobin-Martin, Irish Hospice Foundation’s Caru Programme Regional Lead and Clinical Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care and Paula O’Reilly CEO of Irish Hospice Foundation; Dr. Robert Johnson from the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children; Professor Karen Ryan UCD Full Clinical Professor and Consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Francis Hospice and the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and Grace Stewart, head of children’s services at the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice.
The members of the NSIPA heard that palliative care journeys with a person from a life changing diagnosis through to end-of-life care and supports a family as they grieve a loved one. The importance of advance care planning and the need for a register of Advance Healthcare Directives was also noted, as well as the increasing need for more education and training for those delivering General Palliative Care as the numbers of people who will palliative care is projected to double over the next twenty years.
Having heard about examples of programmes delivered by IHF such as the Caru nursing home programme the benefits of shared learning across the island in relation to education and training and the opportunities for experiences to be shared. Members voiced support for the delivery of certain services on an all-island basis, including ways to reduce the need for patients to travel to receive specialist palliative care services.
Read the full statement presented to the members of the NSIPA below.