Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The answer is "Yes". I fully agree. There was a 2013 strategy. It did not really happen because it never got funded, to be honest. It should have been funded. We would probably all agree, with the benefit of hindsight, that the project should have happened but it did not, for whatever reasons. A new strategy is now being finalised and we are looking at the period from 2023 to 2030. The HSE and the Department have done a great deal of work. They have engaged with international experts on this endeavour. As I was saying, I have asked them, first and foremost, to build this undertaking around the patients. The question to be asked is whether this will make things easier for the patients. Most things to be tracked back to this point. Equally, let us not hang our hat on some ten-year megaproject. Let us ensure we can deliver incrementally to make things better. Taking the example of the maternity hospitals, the aim is by the end of next year to have 70% of babies born covered by the maternity electronic health record service. We will then be moving on from there.