David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will make a final comment. I will not speak in the second round. We are all committed to Sláintecare and want to see it happen as quickly as possible. Nobody doubts the complexity of many of the requirements to make it happen. We will not remove private healthcare from public hospitals unless we resolve the talks with consultants, yet a chair still has not been appointed and there is no sense of when that will conclude. That is central to it. We will not achieve universal general practitioner, GP, care unless we increase GP capacity. I would imagine we need to change the GP contract to ensure there is greater flexibility about funding and how we resource GP surgeries, which has to be a quid pro quo. We are stuck in talks regarding provision for six- and seven-year-olds. There is still no resolution to it and it is frustrating. There seems to be no clear timeframe. I have tabled parliamentary questions about the timeframes. I have been told we need to do planning, to look at the consequences of rolling out free GP care, at what demographic changes might happen, and about all sorts of work that needs to be done. I do not know if it is being done, but it is central to Sláintecare and I am concerned there is not sufficient urgency about it.

I am concerned about the targets set for waiting lists. They are ambitious but I do not see the needed resources to meet those targets. I wish Mr. Woods the best of luck in his work with rolling out the regional health areas. I have concerns about what they will be. I think they will be central to achieving those targets. I have a final point for Mr. Reid. The problem with the targets set is that there are no local or regional targets. We set national or State-wide targets where everybody is responsible but nobody is responsible. Unless we start to drill down into each individual hospital and health area, the targets will never be met, because there are hiding places for hospitals. We have to get real about the accountability if we are to have any chance of reaching the targets. I thank the witnesses for attending.