David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Shortall on the meeting she organised. An all-party delegation will be seeking to meet the Minister. These are important issues that need to be answered.

I have a final question. I do not think the Minister will not have the information to hand but I am seeking a detailed note on this. As we are examining expenditure, the Estimates and public spending in health, will the Minister ask his officials to provide me with a briefing note on the total private spend on healthcare in our total public healthcare system? For example, I am referring to the total spend on outsourcing to the National Treatment Purchase Fund and the total spend on consultancy fees. In the Minister's briefing note he referred to community beds being purchased privately. There is the issue of locum and agency staff and it is too much to go into in this session. For the purposes of future sessions and engagements, will the Minister arrange for that breakdown to be given to us? I might send the secretariat a note of exactly what I am looking for. I assume the Minister has a sense of it. He might provide that as soon as possible. I thank him for his answers.