John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise if this question has been answered as I had to step out briefly. How big an issue is data protection for the future of IT or ehealth care? If there are issues, do we need to legislate to overcome them? I would hate to think that we would continue run up against a problem because of data protection. Sometimes we have to serve the greater good. I would be interested to get our guests' views on that.

It is stated in the summary that this is a ten-year journey and that it is important not to have big bang solution - I think that was the phrase used. Given where we are at with IT and, as Deputy O'Connell pointed out, it changes almost annually in that what we are using today is almost obsolete in 12 months' time, should we be more ambitious? It was stated that this is a lean, mean operation, but are we fit for purpose? Revenue is pretty efficient at what it does, too efficient perhaps for people like me if I were still in business. Is, as was mentioned, one person per 11 what is needed, and if it is, is that what we should be striving towards? As a committee we have been set up to come up with a ten-year strategy. Mr. Corbridge spoke about a ten-year strategy, so there is a sort of fit there. I have seen the benefits of improvements in ehealth for local GPs who work with the system through the hospitals, and the amount of time and energy saved by the exchanging of information electronically is colossal. Are we ambitious enough in this area?