Ms Laura Magahy:

That is the overview of the 11 projects which comprise the two programmes for the next three years for Sláintecare. We will report on them on a regular basis. We have just completed our quarter 1 report and everything is broadly on track, which is really great. We will be providing an evaluation programme, as discussed earlier, and making sure that everything is aligned and reported on properly. We are working in tandem with the HSE and other colleagues right across the system to implement this very complicated programme and making sure that everything is running in the right direction.

We are very pleased that everything the members have seen in the report is funded, other than the areas that are highlighted, for example, with the elective hospitals, where it has to come back to the Government for specific approval. All the elements such as beds, community staffing, diagnostic care, social care expansion, etc., that were outlined in the budget, which we went through with the committee at our last meeting, have been funded. We are very pleased with that.

I thank the committee for bearing with the technical issues. Sláintecare is about working together across the system. We are acutely aware that it has had the support of all of the parties, for which we are very grateful. We value the input of all the public representatives, as well as our colleagues across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the health system. We look forward to discussing the report with the committee and to coming back and updating it later in the year on how we are getting on.