Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)

I have a number of questions. Looking at the report published last night, one of the things that jumped out at me was the key concerns related to insourcing. They are concerns that have been articulated within the House previously. Insourcing led to the potential of: creating conflicts of interest; non-compliance of procurement rules; inequitable use of public funds; disincentivising normal job plan delivery; undermining long-term workforce sustainability; limited productivity improvements and reform of public health services; risk of abuse, misuse and fraud; and low public confidence. It is a remarkable list of key concerns on a practice that is happening in hospitals. I welcome that the insourcing arrangements will be phased out completely by the end of June 2026. It is the starkest list of concerns. They have been articulated by members here before. In the interim, it will be more tightly regulated.

The point about potentially removing dependency on outsourcing entirely is also welcome, although I would have liked a stronger commitment in that regard. I accept that this cannot be done overnight, given how reliant our system has become on outsourcing, unfortunately.

What are Mr. Gloster’s plans to advance this aim in the medium-to-long-term? Will he accelerate reforms of elective care to achieve that? Regarding the opening of elective hospitals, two will be in Dublin and one in Cork and Galway. They were recommended as part of Sláintecare, with a delivery timeline of 2027 and 2028. However, we are nowhere near meeting the targets for those elective hospitals. Elective-only hospitals would free up capacity in existing hospitals and, crucially, would significantly reduce waiting lists.