Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Again, I apologise for the way in which today worked out with the Cabinet meeting. I see, however, that the health service is very ably represented by the director general, the Secretary General, the two Ministers of State - Deputies Jim Daly and Finian McGrath - and the other officials from the HSE.

I wish to comment on the conversation on public and private services. From a policy direction point of view, I fully support the direction of travel that Sláintecare wishes to take in this regard. I have heard the Taoiseach talk publicly about wishing to see public and private care decoupled. For all the reasons the director general outlined, however, there is an obvious reason Sláintecare is a ten-year plan. It is because there is a significant amount of disentanglement that would need to be considered.

The second point, on which the director general is again entirely correct, is that the proportion of Irish people who have private health insurance is extraordinary large, amounting to nearly half our population. One should compare the figure with those for other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom. There is a very different culture. I am very conscious that there are very many people in this country who take out private health insurance not because they can comfortably afford to do so - far from it - but because of their genuine concern over being able to gain access, in a time-efficient manner, to the public health service. One would hope that as we move on the Sláintecare journey and towards investing in driving down waiting times and improving access, as we are now, the knock-on effect will be that the private market will shrink in size. That is ultimately where Sláintecare wants us to get to, and it is where I want to get to. In that sense, there are a number of different tracks on which we have to move.

Dr. Donal de Buitléir, the new chairman of the group examining the public-private relationship, brings experience in terms of the development of public sector policy and experience of the health service here, which will be very important. That his work will not go on and on but, rather, conclude around next summer, should provide us with a very evidence-based analysis of the situation that will help inform the next steps.