David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The realignment of healthcare, acute care and primary care is really important but it is not going to work and we are not going to usher in a new level of accountability and change in healthcare by things pretty much staying the way they are. We are going to have a geographical and administrative alignment but the RHAs will not have a board, there is no legal underpinning, the HSE will remain the employer and all corporate functions will remain at the centre of the HSE. These RHAs will be a division of the HSE at the centre. The HSE will control procurement, finance and all other corporate functions. That is not reform. It is not what was envisaged in Sláintecare. We have been hearing for some time about a pushback from within the HSE in respect of the type of reforms the vast majority of Oireachtas Members want. From my perspective, option 3 is the best model because it would establish regional authorities and regional health areas that would have their own board and would be legal entities. The business case states that these RHAs "cannot enter into contracts in their own right". They cannot even enter into contracts unless they get permission from the centre. This is not reform.