Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)

I wish to acknowledge the extensive briefing prepared and the extent of work that went in and I thank everyone for that.

I want to start my contribution on the long-term spending. People in Ireland fundamentally believe in universal healthcare and increasing public spending but they want that money to be spent well. They want well resourced services and that money managed well. That is why the integrated financial management and procurement system is important. It is very important we have robust systems across all different parts of our health service. That is why I am disappointed to see that push-back from the voluntary hospitals around the roll-out there, particularly given the scale of public money that has been invested there. We are talking about €5 billion annually in State funding and resistance from these hospitals to adhere to the systems that will apply in the rest of our hospitals. That cannot be accepted and the witnesses have my full support in trying to get that over the line.