Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)

I thank the witnesses for being here today. It is an important session. It is the second session we have looking at an all-island healthcare system. As both witnesses alluded to, what an all-island health service would look like is one of the key questions people want to know. It does not matter what age people are or what community they come from; it is a key question we are trying to answer on this committee. I am particularly interested in expanding on what Professor Heenan said, “However, without a framework and a vision for collaboration, interventions will remain fragmented and piecemeal.”. I wish to get to that idea of a framework and what specifically we need to do in that regard.

As a party, we in Sinn Féin published a policy document entitled The Case for an Irish National Health and Care Service, which made some recommendations. It is a discussion paper that was launched by Deputy Mary-Lou McDonald earlier this year. The first proposal in the document is that:

The Shared Island Unit should develop detailed costings for implementing the Sláintecare and Bengoa reports and also develop costed proposals for integrating the health systems in the north and the south as a single universal healthcare system. Both these reports should be considered as a potential roadmap when designing a new Health and Care Service.

The second proposal states:

The Ministers for Health, north and south, along with an Assistant Secretary General (or equivalent) from each Department of Health should lead design, planning, integration and collaboration on an all-island basis. The HSC Trusts in the north and the HSE Regions in the South should be part of this process.

I wish to get at the idea of a framework and what needs to be done. While a lot of good stuff is being done, as Professor Heenan rightly says, it is being done on a project basis. I acknowledge the great work being done by Professor Mark Lawler as well, at Queens, in the cardiovascular research area. We hope to have him as a witness on this committee as well to learn from that and what can be done in that regard. We also will be inviting the Minister of Health in the North, Mr. Mike Nesbitt. I hope he will take part in our discussions as well because, as Professor Heenan said, regardless of people's constitutional preference, we need to know what an all-island health service would look like. We all have a responsibility in that regard. Will Professor Heenan speak a bit on that framework piece, how she would see it being instigated and who would lead it? I also ask her to speak on the first two proposals in Sinn Féin’s policy document.