Ms Rachel Flynn:

Regarding Deputy O'Connell's query about the roll-out of national systems, our role in HIQA is to set standards in the area of health information. The Deputy mentioned the individual health identifier. We set the standards around how that identifier is implemented within the HSE. We talk about how it should be governed and managed, what privacy should be in place for it and the conduct of a privacy impact assessment, which is standard procedure in privacy by design.

To answer the Deputy's question, the Department of Health published an e-health strategy in 2014. It relates to the introduction of things like the electronic health record, e-prescribing and identifiers. The office of the chief information officer within the HSE published a knowledge plan that set out the plan for implementing the e-strategy over the next seven to eight years. One of the projects it is involved in is implementing the individual health identifier. The Deputy's question is whether it will be rolled out nationally first or whether a proof of concept will be picked. The idea is that it will prove that it works in a jurisdiction before it is rolled out nationally. The second area it is hoped to get funding for is around electronic records. I referred to that earlier. We need a legal framework around that to introduce it in Ireland. That is well recognised in documentation produced by the Department. Again, that would be rolled out as a proof of concept initially and then rolled out nationally.