Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Theoretically, the job of the chief executive and Secretary General is to manage productivity, patient safety, services, affordability, waiting lists, the capital plan and everything else, but ultimately one has to be able to specify the top priorities. The reality is that the HSE really does not have a culture of performance management, productivity and savings. In my previous life, before I was appointed three and a half years ago, the most basic management information I would have sought when going into large corporations, including hospitals abroad, to help them to provide more care for the same amount of money just did not exist. Where it did, it was not being used. I was pretty shocked by what I saw. We are not coming to the productivity task force now. Critically, over the past few years we have been systematically putting in place the public-only consulting contract, getting our e-health initiative going, upgrading the capacity of the system and moving to seven days per week. I hear the Deputy but, to be honest, there is a pretty fundamental cultural change required within the HSE in terms of productivity. In my judgment, therefore, we set up the task force to give it the space, time and political direction to say what has got to be pushed.