Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I will answer the questions directly but I might ask the Department to provide a more detailed note for the committee because these are important issues and there is much more detail than I can cover here.

On the financial management system, the detailed design was completed in quarter 2 of last year. The capital budget for the programme is €82 million. That gives a sense of exactly how big it is. The original project timelines targeted about 80% of health expenditure transacted by 2025. I share the Deputy's concern we need to move more quickly on this because we are talking about vast amounts of public money being allocated in what I see as one of the most important areas.

There has been work on unique patient identifiers, which are needed. We will all be aware of some of the concerns - legal concerns and so forth - that were raised before. It is not acceptable that we do not have it. Other countries have them. We created one for the vaccination programme very quickly, when the need arose. There is now work looking at that, so I fully share the Deputy's view. We cannot have integrated patient systems across the country without having this unique patient identifier. In the previous Dáil, the committee spent time hearing evidence that some clinical trials, which our patients need to have access to, cannot happen because we do not have unique patient identifiers.

We are out of time but I am happy to come back later on both the workforce plan and the population-based funding. Alternatively, I can respond in writing; whichever she prefers.