Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My first question relates to the Estimates and the new structure within the HSE, about which I heard from Fergal Bowers. There is an advertisement on the HSE website at the moment for 21 senior managers. People often say there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians in the health service and the HSE is not helping its own cause with that advertisement. What are the estimated costs of that? Every shilling spent on senior managers is not spent on front-line staff.

My next question is on waiting lists. In the other committee, we had a presentation from the chief information officer and he outlined the decades of underinvestment, as well as the fact that we still lagged behind the rest of the EU with 3% of our budget going towards investment. Hopefully, e-strategies will form a big part of cost savings in the future so can the Minister give some detail on the level of investment over the medium term in e-health? I corresponded with the Minister on the Comhliosta system we are proposing, a model for which exists in Portugal. Is an integrated waiting list part of the strategy which is on his desk and, if so, how much money has been put aside for it?

Much of what the Minister said on drugs pricing is to be welcomed, especially the idea of getting people back to the table to talk.

On page 18, on the topic of principles and processes for the assessment of new medicines, a series of criteria are identified. Are they weighted? If so, what gets the highest weighting? What way are the criteria weighted? In the same section, a table identifies decisions made at the level of what is called "HSE leadership". Who specifically are the people involved?

The Minister was talking to my colleague Councillor Natalie Treacy about her mother, Mrs. Vera Ronan. I am interested to know what has been put aside for expenditure. The Minister stated there are 950 home care packages but dementia-specific and intensive home care packages were also promised which would facilitate people with injuries, such as Mrs. Ronan, in coming out of hospital and being rehabilitated in the community. These packages were promised but were not delivered. We are obviously working off a very low base with this. Are any of the 950 care packages specific to neurorehabilitation? While we have the report and strategy, we do not have any specific dates for implementation. Any information the Minister can give us in that regard would be most welcome.