Ms Laura Magahy:

That is fantastic. As the Chair mentioned, two strategies have just been approved by the Government in the past month. The Sláintecare Oireachtas report's fundamental principles underpin the Sláintecare implementation strategy and action plan. Healthy Ireland is the key prevention pillar of Sláintecare reform and hence we have brought our colleagues from Healthy Ireland, with whom we work hand in glove. We have made steady progress since the office was opened just over two years ago, as is outlined in the strategy. We have had targeted support for integration and innovation programmes. A decision was made this year to fund Sláintecare to the levels in the health capacity review, which is welcome. A substantial Sláintecare communications and citizen engagement programme has occurred. There has been a significant move to the community, which was a key part of Sláintecare, with additional staffing coming into place this year as a result of all the funding. I will also highlight the key foundational decisions of the establishment of the HSE board and the approval of the geographies for the six new regional areas.

There has also been steady policy progress which underpins everything we do. That progress has included the Healthy Ireland outcomes framework, the national healthy positive indicators for ageing, an independent patient advocacy service and other key policies that have underpinned everything we do and everything that is being rolled out in the new strategy.

We have focused on two priority programmes for implementation over the next three years. The first programme is about improving safe, timely access to care and promoting health and well-being. The second programme is around addressing health inequalities. My colleagues and I will take the committee members through the 11 projects which form these two programmes. We will then be very happy to take comments etc., and elaborate on anything that is in the plan.

The first programme is about improving safe, timely access to care, promoting health and well-being. It is underpinned and enabled by staff engagement, public engagement and, critically, funding. The overall objective is to achieve the waiting time targets of 12 weeks for inpatients, ten weeks for outpatients and ten days for diagnostics for public patients across the system. It is a complicated set of projects. There are seven in total and they are interrelated and interlinking. They involve implementation by the Department of Health policy sections, HSE operations and many other stakeholders across the system. We are not starting from scratch. Many of these have begun and have made progress in the past two years, but by the end of the next three years they will see substantial implementation.