Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate that, and I wish Mr. Gloster well with the implementation of that, but I just think the HSE should mandate that for every single patient who walks through its doors, the first thing that is captured is that piece of data. When patients come through the door is when the HSE has it and then it never has to send that person a letter again. I accept there will be elderly people for whom post is the only way of communicating. I accept that post will always be a percentage but the HSE should be relentless in reducing this cost.

It is really interesting from the statement of revenue, income and expenditure that total expenditure rose from €17.2 billion in 2019 to €26.9 billion in 2024. This is an increase in nearly €10 billion in five years. Within that, the non-pay spend went from €11.2 billion to €17.6 billion. This is an increase of over €6 billion. Are those figures correct?