Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. To be clear on this, I accept the overall cost estimate of the Sláintecare report over a ten-year period, but I do not accept its sequencing. Even the ramping-up period was not, in my view, taken into consideration. The Sláintecare report is an excellent report and I fully accept where it wants to get us. It was not an operational or implementation plan. We did considerable work to detail it. We published our response to it last year and now we have published year 1 of the implementation plan this year, so we do have costings.

While I think the Deputy will understand I can brief Deputies and talk to them about some of the costings, we cannot crystallise them publicly. There are some big things. For example, one of the big recommendations of Sláintecare, which I support even though not everyone does, is taking private practice out of public hospitals. I commissioned a report from Dr. Donal de Buitléir, which I now have, and once I have deliberated on it, I will bring it to Cabinet in due course. The cost of that, for example, is likely to result in significant negotiations. It is hard to crystallise all the costs but broadly speaking, I do not disagree with the costs of Sláintecare; I just disagree with the sequencing of it.