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

Is value for money being examined in any respect? I have not seen any conclusions being drawn in that regard. I have some concern that substantial funding is going into the acutes and into the NTPF. Are we seeing a transfer of activity from public hospitals to the NTPF, which essentially amounts to outsourcing? Equally, this question arises in primary care diagnostics, where we have seen huge spending on the outsourcing of diagnostics, with 80% of the budget spent so far this year. What is happening about the funding that was intended for diagnostics within the public health system? How is the Department measuring those two? Can Mr. Watt convince us that there is not a transfer of activity from the public sector to the private sector?