Mr. Leo Kearns:

To be honest, I do not think it is possible for it to happen now. When we think about the way the system is set up, we have all the budgets separated out. We have GPs operating separately and not necessarily with access to diagnostics. I know the situation has improved and that more diagnostics are available, but I would not like to be a GP without immediate access to diagnostics. I refer to the risks this creates for GPs and patients. This is why Sláintecare is fundamental. The way we have organised our health service is like we are playing a game of football and, first, we have not even marked out the pitch. Then, every single player on the page is reporting to somebody different. They are not reporting to the manager. They do not even know who that is. To continue the analogy, we then expect them to go out and play. By the way, as well, we should have 15 players on the pitch, but we only have ten and we expect them to play a game. When we understand, therefore, just how impossible this is, this fact must be the drive for saying this current situation is utterly unsustainable and must change.