Mr. Muiris O'Connor:

Part of the fragmentation in our health information landscape has arisen from the public, private, voluntary nature of the Irish system. There was not always an enthusiastic willingness to share data between voluntary and public, and between private and public. There were instances where voluntary hospitals entered into data sharing agreements with the NTPF which required them not to share that data with the Department of Health. We have ironed out those issues. I can detect and see very considerable progress through a data access group.

The section 38 hospitals, as a group, have engaged with the complete refreshment of data sharing arrangements with the HSE. They recognise the importance of connected health. They recognise the European move to centre it on citizens' rights to have their health information connected, irrespective of where they get the data. Although not yet enacted, the Bill is having a very positive influence on the commitment to share. It is vital that we operate as a coherent system. The sharing of care records from different sources, as we have spoken about, is now supported in legislation. There is a clear legal basis for the sharing.

There are much stronger powers for the HSE to require data, to specify the categories of information it wants and crucially - I think the Deputy was picking up on this - the standards to support interoperability. The beauty of it is that the interoperability we seek will not just unify health information in a connectable way here in Ireland, but will have it connected across the wider 27 member states of the EU and associated countries that plug in. Therefore, we can really transform this quickly from what I would regard as very poor behaviours at times around data sharing. I am confident that we are really getting places now. The productivity dashboard that the Minister spoke about took about 18 months of work, trying to renegotiate data sharing and trying to secure the reporting in sensible formats to bring that visibility to the productivity and performance in health and social care so we have a unified system.

We are engaging with the private hospitals. They have not all been co-operative but we are working with them to ensure we get a citizen-centred approach, which while rather agnostic to the site in which the healthcare is delivered, captures the data arising.