Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

The reality is that it has been difficult with different elements of the health system to agree, for example, data sharing in relation to patients and population-based health data. That has been a struggle over the last number of years with the voluntary systems and with the private systems, but the patient is still the patient. Now we have a situation where the State funds public health in the voluntary hospitals nearly completely. Off the top of my head, the National Maternity Hospital, for example, has a couple of hundred public servants and €112 million this year. The Mater hospital has close to half a billion euro. St. James's has half a billion euro and hundreds of public servants. These are State-funded entities that are in some cases directly covered, in that I am the sole shareholder, the Comptroller and Auditor General has oversight of them and everybody there is operating as a public servant with a public service pension. They work for the State and it is very important that is understood. The Irish State is at the centre of healthcare, both in public and in private, in different ways and it is simply essential that we have the opportunity to implement the financial management system that this committee should demand. I have already heard the support in the committee for that project.