Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and wish everyone a good morning.

I find this whole area quite confusing because we have been talking about it since 2014 and much of the terminology is changing. It is hard to know whether it is a matter of trying to start afresh and forget about all the nonsense that happened in the past. There is an element of that. The Department is using new terminology, etc.

Having the legislative underpinning for this is fine and, obviously, that is critically important, but what I am not getting from the Department is how the system will work and what is the intention. We have been here before on several occasions. I can recall the Taoiseach, then Minister for Health, announcing the e-health programme and the appointment of a fine person, in Mr. Richard Corbridge, who in the end gave up due to frustration. Mr. Corbridge went on to have very senior roles in the UK. For example, he was the chief information officer in Boots. Mr. Corbridge is currently in the UK Department of Work and Pensions. That was utter frustration. Mr. Corbridge walked out.

Various interests have been holding this back, but it seems that one of the major ones is the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. We have already discussed what happened in 2018 when the business case was refused. It is all very well having legislation on the Statute Book, but what will happen in the context of the system? Will Mr. O'Connor talk us through the sequence of events he expects to happen under this programme? For example, where do matters stand regarding the very starting point, namely, the IHI? Does Mr. O'Connor accept that having to have an IHI is the first step?