Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Minister referred to formal investigations. I welcome that in respect of the people who were highlighted in last night's programme. Clearly, this is a systemic problem that must be dealt with. We need to change the systems in place that allow abuse of the public purse at present. I am repeating my request. The National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, audit was carried out and published two weeks ago. Can the Minister ask the NTPF to provide the data in respect of the status, public or private, of the patients concerned? That would be interesting.

Another question I asked relates to Sláintecare and was dealt with in the Sláintecare report. It relates to the setting of targets for public hospitals to increase the number of private patients they are taking.

Can the Minister end that practice as a matter of urgency, stop the stretch targets and let us see how we can get from 20% down to 0% over the next five years as recommended in the report?