Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Brien for his presentation. He referred to the cost of equipment and said, to paraphrase, we bought a lot during the boom and it could do with being replaced. Why are we buying equipment? Normal process in businesses is that large plant would be leased and maintained by a service provider. Why is this not common practice in the HSE? I understand some is going on, however it seems we are front-loading money on equipment and then, I assume, the HSE needs to employ engineers to maintain it. It seems completely contrary to how it is done in a normal corporate entity.

It is concerning that we would not set out to have a perfect structure and then, maybe, move back a little from it. We are always using the word "ambitious" in the committee. Would we not try to be ambitious to have the optimum structure? I am probably wearing people out speaking about the alignment of the seven hospital groups and nine CHOs. We have raised it on numerous occasions and examined the structure we have been given in one of the documents. If one does not have a defined population with a person in charge of the population, how, in God's name, can we quantify what we need, audit what is happening and compare with similar defined populations? It seems very strange that we would not have defined borders.

Is there any infographic that shows us how the HSE will get from the current structure to the new structure? What sort of dead wood, for want of a better word, can we get rid of in the process? Are we just, yet again, adding another layer to the administration?

Mr. O'Brien spoke about the positives. I do not see many positives on the ground. Mr. O'Brien mentioned improvements in waiting lists for mental health services for children and adolescents? Could Mr. O'Brien elaborate on where we were and where we are? What would he consider an acceptable time for a child to wait for mental health services during his or her formative years?

Mr. O'Brien said some of the information the committee is receiving might be an eye-opener. None of us needed to join this committee to have our eyes opened, given that we see operations cancelled due to lack of beds and escalating numbers of people on trolleys, and that we hope to God we will get a bad frost so we do not have a major flu epidemic. None of us needed to join this committee to have our eyes opened unless we had been living under our beds.