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

We will certainly return to that last issue when we have our briefing. I am very frustrated about the whole thing of the sites and action for the Dublin elective hospitals. The person responsible for capital projects in the Department last December, 12 months ago, told the committee that decisions would be made in February or March. When the Minister was here in April, he told us the proposal would be on his desk pretty soon. Here we are now at the end of yet another year with no decision-made on this. I appreciate many of the witnesses are as frustrated as we are with the slow pace. Clearly, the problem lies at the level of political decision-making. We do not expect the witnesses to cover up that lack of political decision-making. I know they are in a very difficulty position at this committee. We need frank answers and we need to know where we stand. If the money is not agreed and if there is not provision for any of these things, we need to be told that. We need to deal with the reality of what is going on.

There is another area where there has been very significant slippage. It is quite clear there is slippage across a whole lot of proposals and elements of Sláintecare. I will ask about the digital framework. My understanding was it was to be published in September. Again, is the delay down to the lack of political decision-making? I ask Mr. O'Connor and Mr. Thompson about why we have not seen that yet.