Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. If it is okay, we will now move on to the second programme, which consists of four parts. It refers to primary care services, which has a total Vote of €3.852 billion. That is on page 7 of the document. It is broken down to primary care reimbursement services, which have a Vote of €2.807 billion, social inclusion, which has a Vote of €134 million, primary care, which has a Vote of €834 million, and palliative care, which has a Vote of €77 million. The first item on page 7 is the total primary care service budget of €3.852 billion.

I might start off with the Minister with regard to palliative care. It is a topic we have discussed at a number of our committee meetings. There is not national coverage for community palliative care services. I note that the Vote has gone up by 0.3%. Perhaps the Minister will comment on that.