Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have two topics on which to focus, so my contribution will not be too lengthy. Last week, during a discussion we had on the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health, a member of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association made an interesting comment that is pertinent to today's discussion. He said that we could publish as many plans and reports on which we ideologically agree, but these reports must come with implementation strategies, and that we need to move to a place where we have a roadmap for implementation as a companion for such plans. Can the Department provide a steer on the implementation of reporting on Sláintecare? For example, in the forestry sector, there is a dashboard that everyone has access to and they can see what targets have been met, such as how many trees have been chopped down and how many saplings have been planted, and how that aligns with the targets that have been set. It is particularly good for public accountability, as well as for public representatives to be able to see what is happening. Could something like that be done? The public wants to know what is happening with Sláintecare. We want to know. We invite witnesses to the committee in order to ask them questions. As to a clear accountability measure, such as a dashboard, are there plans for or a conversation about providing something like that? It would save us from some of the argy-bargy that happens sometimes. It would create a clear and transparent accountability mechanism for Sláintecare which, I believe, the members of the public would like.

I will ask my second question now and I am happy for both of them to be answered together. I refer to the rates of pay that exist and m y party colleague, Deputy Kelly, listed a number of figures in the Dáil Chamber yesterday, such as the 700 vacant consultant posts. We know about the shortage of GPs across the country from reports by Simon Carswell in The Irish Times. One in five GPs are expected to retire by the end of the decade and we need 2,000 more. In 13 GP areas, medical card holders have been without a permanent doctor for a year, and so on and so forth. I need not go into the depth of it. I have a genuine question that is not designed to trip the witnesses up. Considering the current rates of pay, will we ever be in a position to hire enough staff to implement Sláintecare to its fullest? We hear about the core rates of pay and how they are not sufficient to attract to people. If we continue with current rates of pay, will we be able to get to where Sláintecare needs to be or is there a need for a genuine conversation about how that to happen with those rates of pay? My two questions are on implementation and the use of a dashboard system and whether we can reach Sláintecare goals in the context of current rates of pay.