Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have to accept that Deputy Funchion's committee has had an incredible agenda of major legislation, particularly the information and tracing Bill. The latter will give unprecedented access to birth records and is very important. There was the burials legislation and now we have the payments legislation. There are also other issues. I pay tribute to the fantastic innovation that children are able to use Zoom for Oireachtas committees. We need more of this in terms of citizenship and linking our children and young people to the democratic process. It is a fantastic initiative. If there is anything we can do to assist with this and add to it, I would be more than delighted. Yesterday, I met a young student from Kerry, Daithí Ó Loinsigh, who won a competition to deliver a video to sell to his peers the idea of a career in the public service. I did not think it was the greatest prize of all, but first prize was to interview the Taoiseach. He was happy enough to come in and interview me. We need to do more of this. It is very important. Well done on that.

On child poverty, there were recent data from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, which are quite interesting, regarding the interventions the Government made in respect of pandemic payments and unemployment subsidy payments. Only for those, we would have had a potentially far worse number of families and children at risk of poverty. In fact, in the past year or two there were reductions in the number of people at risk of poverty because of the interventions.

With regard to children with disabilities, we need to have a comprehensive review nationally on where we are going with the various Departments. Before I came into government, I was concerned about how Progressing Disability was progressing and about the relationship between the health side and the education side. We need to be very pragmatic in the context of the interventions and approaches for children. This is one of the reasons the decision was taken to remove disability from the Department of Health and have it dealt with by a separate Department, which is the Department with responsibility for children. Health is enormous given the range of responsibilities. There is certainly more work to be done. I hear what the Deputy said about resources.

More generally on resources, consistent points have been raised by different Chairs. I will ask the Secretary General of my Department to discuss with the Secretaries General of all the other Departments logistical arrangements and engagement with this committee and with the committee Chairs. I will engage with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission on the broader issue of resources.

Deputy Seán Crowe raised an issue in respect of which there are two factors. I am loath to speak about people's career choices, career pathways and the decisions that individuals are entitled to make about where they want to go. Certainly the Chief Medical Officer and the deputy chief medical officer have been two exceptional contributors to the national cause with regard to Covid-19 in particular and in the context of other issues. There is strong capacity in the public health division in the Department of Health. I wish both of them well. People go to the private sector. The private sector watches talent in the public sector. Very clearly, there was a lot of interaction between the private sector and the public sector during Covid. The private sector has got an insight into certain potential movers and shakers. I am not saying that is the case with these individuals, but it is a reality and we need to take it on board.

With regard to cervical testing, I do not have a specific timeline. We would probably never have had a CervicalCheck programme if the decision had not been made to go outside but that leads to issues with regard to quality control. It is preferable that we move as fast as possible to create our own domestic capacity for testing across the board. Investments are happening and the Minister might have referred to this recently, either at the committee or through publicly issued statements on the investment taking place.

On the national maternity hospital, the Government published all of the documentation. This has been going on for nine years. I watched a small snippet on the television over the past couple of days in which some of the people working in Holles Street were saying that this has been going on for nine years and that they are extremely concerned about how long more it will go on. Over the past 12 to 14 days, I have not heard any clear explanation of the difference between the impact of a leasehold of 300 years and a freehold on the clinical operation and financial independence of the new maternity hospital. I have not heard it. I do not quite understand how a leasehold of 300 years impacts on the independence of the hospital. I cannot see how it does. No one has explained to me yet how it does. I take the Deputy's comments in good faith but there is parliamentary function and Executive function, and the Government has to consider this.

People thought decisions had been taken at the end of the process that involved Kieran Mulvey, when he was brought in by the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to knock heads together. He got an agreement. The most recent public debate on it was when it surfaced during the by-election. We went back and the current Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, negotiated it with his team in the Department of Health and significant changes were made, particularly with regard to the length of time of the lease. It is now for 300 years as opposed to 140. It is many times the expected lifespan of the hospital so the State will get back its investment many times over. We had decided we needed three State or Government appointees on the board but after the Mulvey process it was only one. There is a constitution and an operational licence from the HSE for the hospital. All of these legally not only guarantee but oblige the hospital authorities to provide all lawfully permissible services in the State. This has been exhausted over quite some length of time. No doubt over the coming days it will be also.