John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of pay for community pharmacists. A lot of community pharmacists in my constituency, some of whom are second generation, could raise a number of issues but one of them relates to the pay freeze of the past 15 years, as they see it.

It is resulting in a reduction in services. The Secretary General looked like the ball was hopped at him with respect to the national children's hospital and design and, therefore, I will give him an opportunity to reflect on it if he would like to say more about the design challenges. I heard something on the radio at the weekend. Someone also hopped a ball about it because of the time it is taking to build. I recall that by the time Tallaght University Hospital was completed 30 years ago, there were significant issues. Some of the equipment did not fit in it. I presume that was a completely different era.

The Swiftcare model is incredibly successful. I did not flag this question but I would be interested in the witnesses' views on it. We do not have a public version of Swiftcare, yet I suspect it takes a colossal volume of people away from emergency departments who have sprains and other injuries, for example on ankles. People have to pay for it and they only get it if they have private health insurance. The witnesses might answer that question.

Do not underestimate - I have said it before - the impact of free car parking at primary care centres. Do not even think about levying car parking. It is a great incentive for people to use it.

The chief executive officer mentioned at the end of questioning the last time we met that the Land Development Agency, LDA, had big eyes on the HSE's land bank. This question is for both witnesses. I thought it was an interesting concept. The HSE is open to discussions and positive about it - I hope I am paraphrasing him correctly - but, as CEO of the HSE, he would like to be able to leverage some of that potential, if it came to pass, for key healthcare workers.