Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On the transition of services to primary care, much of our primary care is centred around GPs. I have seen no evidence that any progress has been made on the renegotiation of the GP contract. Will the Minster update us on where that process has reached? I have repeatedly asked questions about staffing for primary care centres, and each time I receive the same answer. It is a real cut and paste job which says services will be provided from within existing resources. I can even quote it from memory. There are no new staff. If the Minister has a vision for how this will work without staff, I would love to hear it. I doubt he does, however, so we must hear about where the staff are going to come from and, specifically, what the Minister will do in regard to GPs.

Sláintecare provides that there will be legislation for entitlement for all residents to access health and social care and a guarantee on waiting lists underpinned by legislation. The implementation plan has changed that slightly and uses the words "expand eligibility on a phased basis to move towards universal healthcare". If it is universal, then we do not have to discuss eligibility. There seems to be some contradiction. There has also been some slippage with the universality but also the legislation to underpin guaranteed waiting times. I echo the previous comments. It is very much bound up with the waiting lists, because it is a mechanism, but the waiting lists must also be addressed separately.

Will the costings that the Department of Health will use in the implementation strategy be published along with the implementation report? It is important that we see that and that we see real progress. No one wants this to be merely a tick-box exercise.