Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

So people say.

Obviously, I would like to have more money to address waiting times. We do not have it but I would love to get it. If I did have it, we would be able to spend it on reducing waiting times. I am not sure I would use the NTPF mechanism, as the Deputy suggests. What that involves is essentially paying private hospitals to do the work of the public sector. There may be a role for that, but it is not my favoured role. I would prefer to see us opening the closed theatres in public hospitals, such as in Cappagh, and the two closed theatres in Nenagh. I do not think the default solution should be to pay the private sector, because that is an expensive option. It also creates a perverse incentive to have waiting lists if people know that their waiting lists will be bought off by the Government and paid for in the private sector and they can then be paid twice for the same patient in some cases. This would create a very perverse incentive and that is what happened under the previous Government with the NTPF. That is not to say there may not be a role for it where we do not have the capacity in the public system, but where there is capacity we should use the public system's capacity first.