Mr. Greg Dempsey:

I will answer the last question first. A key input into Sláintecare and the regionalisation of services is the ability to do population projections and within those projections to stratify by gender, social circumstances and health needs. From that we can work out the health needs and how they can be provided. We then budget on that basis. We are working on that. We are also developing a health system performance assessment framework which will give a view of the whole of the health system. What are the inputs, the money and the staff? What are the outputs and the activity being done? What are our fixed resources, premises and models of care? Then, what are the outcomes? It will measure outcomes generally, but also specific outcomes. That is all a move to better understand where we invest and what the outcomes are.