Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to return to the issue of waiting lists because I have been reflecting on the Minister’s response. Fundamentally, the current waiting lists have nothing to do with Sláintecare. They have grown beyond recognition to levels never seen before in the history of the Republic of Ireland. Does the Minister accept that solving the waiting lists is possible without Sláintecare and doing so is simply a responsibility of the Government? Regardless of whether the Oireachtas published a Sláintecare report and what is progressing in that regard, does the Minister accept that it is his role to bring down those waiting lists, which have reached hellish levels?

On funding, the Sláintecare report and the team from Trinity College Dublin from whom the committee will hear this afternoon state that Sláintecare is predicated on approximate funding growth of 7.5% per year. That amounts to approximately €1.1 billion per year for the implementation of Sláintecare assuming a base of approximately €15 billion. I acknowledge that the budget will be delivered next week and I am not asking the Minister what he is pitching to the Minister for Finance for next year. However, is he seeking to meet a broad funding goal in line with the Sláintecare report and the view of the team from Trinity College Dublin that the approximate cost will be an additional €1.1 billion each year for approximately ten years?

Obviously, the funding overrun for this year which may amount to more than €600 million is very serious. Is it likely to impact on the ability to invest in Sláintecare for next year?

On assets, both in terms of people such as clinicians, doctors, nurses, speech and language therapists and so on and physical assets such as beds, hospitals, primary care centres, diagnostics, etc., when does Minister believe he will be able to present the committee with a year-by-year forecast indicating how many doctors, nurses, paediatric consultants and primary care centres there will be in various parts of the country?

When will the Minister be in a position to present a forecast in this regard?

The Minister said earlier that the HSE is not fit for purpose. There is danger in a Minister for Health making that statement and not setting out a definitive plan for a replacement. In the UK, Mr. Andrew Lansley, on his appointment by former Prime Minister Cameron said that one of the first things he was going to do was disband NHS trusts, with no proposals regarding what would replace them. This caused chaos. One of the greatest mistakes of the former Minister for Health, Senator Reilly, was his statement on taking up that Ministry that he was going to get rid of the HSE, with no proposals on what would replace it, and that caused chaos. The Minister, Deputy Harris, said that the HSE is not fit for purpose, which I believe many people would agree with in spite of there being some phenomenal people working therein every day to help people. When does he expect to have a new organisation in place?